Rhythm Sentai Beatranger
by TechnoHexx
Summary: ON INDEFINITE HIATUS
1. Album 1: Rock On! Musical New Warriors!

**Music…**

 **It means so many different things to so many different people.**

 **But there's an unknown side to music. A side that is powerful and dangerous.**

 **There are those out there that want to use music to spread their evil and chaos, but thankfully there are also those who use music to spread goodness and light.**

 **Evil, beware those who carry the song of justice in their hearts! They are the…**

 **RHYTHM SENTAI! BEATRANGER!**

* * *

 _ **Song: Let it Out by Miho Fukuhara**_

 _ **English lyrics by Adrisaurus**_

* * *

 _ **Tokyo National Museum**_

It was a typically quiet night at the museum. An old, disgruntled security guard was making his usual rounds with his flashlight. He was going over every exhibit with the wide yellow beam, the light glinting off various pieces of art and ancient samurai armor. Everything seemed fine… until it all went black.

 _ **BAM!**_

And with one swift blow to the back of the head, the guard was out like a light. The thief responsible for the act stepped over the old man's comatose body, and made his way over to his true prize. He collapsed the baton in his hands into its smaller form, slipping it into one of many pockets on the large backpack he was wearing, before taking the time to look over his quarry.

《 _How beautiful!_ 》he mused in his head.

The item in question wouldn't have been anything all that remarkable to the average person, but it was nonetheless enthralling to this thief. It was a large rectangular piece of tan stone with small cracks and broken corners, which easily identified the artifact as extremely ancient. The crook's prize was _so_ close… but unfortunately for the ne'er-do-well, it was trapped underneath a dense glass case that was obviously rigged to trigger an alarm. It was time to get… creative. The thief unzipped his backpack, and pulled out a circular glass cutter. He attached the device's suction cup to the glass, and began using the tool's razor sharp edge to cut a perfect circle into the glass. He then removed the suction cup, along with the cut out glass, and gasped with joy as he revelled in finally gaining access to the tablet. Steady gloved hands carefully extracted it, and beady little eyes looked over the artifact in through the darkness before sticking it into the backpack. Everything had gone smoothly, so now all that was left was to quickly and quietly exit the building. However, a wrench was soon thrown into the works. You see, what the thief had overlooked in the planning of this nefarious activity was that the stone tablet was on a weight sensitive sensor that triggered if the item was moved. Immediately, red lights were flashing like mad and the stentorian sound of multiple alarms echoed throughout the entire building. The thief, who had believed himself to be _so_ damn clever, was obviously taken aback by this course of events. But he refused to be caught, and made a mad dash for the museum's rear exit. He made it to the door, swiftly kicked it down, and ran outside just as he heard the familiar sound of police cars closing in. The criminal jumped a nearby fence, and was greeted to the sight of his getaway driver already raring to go. He ripped open the car's rear door and tossed himself inside. The police had apparently wasted no time inside the museum, since a squad of them were already making their way outside from the back.

The thief screamed, panicked and angry, "Drive! Drive! Drive!"

The driver put the pedal to the metal and the engine roared as the car zoomed down the road. The police tried to give pursuit, but soon realized they were too late. Wherever the getaway car was, it was either gone or blended into the mainstream traffic of the city.

* * *

After driving for what seemed like an eternity, the thief and his accomplice finally got to their destination. It was a lavish mansion in the middle of seemingly nowhere. It was a grand manor, complete with a huge ornate fountain that was surrounded with grandiose lights. The thief tore off his black mask, and replaced it with a pair of bifocals. He removed the archaic tablet from his bag and analyzed it carefully. The driver of the car turned around to see just what his passenger was ogling over so much.

"All of this work to rob the museum and you just stole some old brick?" asked the driver.

The thief immediately ended his focus on the tablet. A look of disgust at his driver's ignorance appeared on his face as he placed the stone tablet back into his bag; he kept his hand in the bag after placing the tablet back inside.

"This tablet holds more value beyond simple monetary worth," the thief explained. "Something a simpleton like you could never understand. It holds a song that will change the world."

The driver rolled his eyes in disbelief. He was completely over the entire endeavor, and was just looking to get paid and leave. It's not like this was the first robbery he had ever helped out on, but this guy was just wasting his time with the entire heist. Who just steals some old rock?!

"Whatever, weirdo. Look, I drove you to the museum, you stole your brick, and I distinctly remember that you promised me a handsome reward for this job," the driver reminded his passenger. "I held up my end of our bargain. Now, fork over the cash."

The thief closed his eyes, his mouth twisted into a smirk, and he was clearly stifling back a chuckle. At this point the driver started to get **very** pissed off.

He furiously slammed his fist onto car's dashboard, "Hey, douchebag! What's so damn funny?"

The thief stopped his laughing. He simply adjusted his glasses and fixed his hair. All of a sudden, the driver had the business end of a silenced pistol pointed right between his eyes. A bead of sweat dripped down the side of his face as he could only stare at the weapon in silent terror.

"What's so funny? Oh, just the idea that I'd let you live after this."

"Wait, please! We can talk about this! We can-"

 _ **POP!**_

* * *

 _ **Two weeks later…**_

"Alright, it's time for the show to start!"

A young man gears himself up for another show. It's not an uncommon occurrence. He's a star! The world's greatest musician! He plays sold-out shows all the time! His fans adore him, and he is quite the ladies' man. He not just any two-bit rockstar! He is the one, the only:

"NOBO-CHAN!"

The very familiar sound of a little girl's voice rings in his. Noboru Akahoshi can only smile as sets up his guitar at his usual venue, the park bench right outside a local elementary school, and coincidentally he always happens to play there just as all the small kids are out for recess. Noboru fixed his slicked down black hair as he pulled out his acoustic guitar from its carrying case and began tuning its strings. Noboru was your typical handsome 21 year old Japanese young man with black hair, kind brown eyes, and a smile bright enough to damn near put the sun out of business. The kind of person that puts you at ease with just a smile, and somehow knows the lyrics to seemingly every song imaginable. While most the children were off simply playing on the various sets of playground equipment, a few of them, mostly little girls who dubbed themselves the "Noboru Fan Club", would always sit in front of him like an impromptu concert. The little girl who had called out to Noboru, a chubby girl with long pigtails named Rika, ran up to the young musician and hugged him.

"You were almost late, Nobo-chan!" she whined.

Noboru placed a hand on the child's head and ruffled her hair, "Sorry about that, Rika. How about you let me make up for lost time?"

"Okay," the small girl said, giggling.

Noboru sat down on the park bench, surrounded by an audience of kids, and began to sing and play his guitar.

 _Let it all out, let it all out_

 _You don't have to think your heart is made of steel_

 _Come away now. From your own doubt_

 _Like a flower of hope that's growing in a field, you will heal!_

 _Even if the road has changed you and the world has often failed you_

 _You gotta carry on and show them you're strong! You gotta bury what is past and gone!_

 _Some days will be worse than others, but you gotta find another way~_

 _Through pain and fear, or rain or tears, we will hold onto the light_

 _We'll chase the dawn that waits for us beyond the darkest sky_

 _Keep following that distant star. Never walk away from who you are_

 _Never forget, that the promise of tomorrow lies in your heart!_

And with one last strum of the guitar's strings, Noboru concluded his serenade, and was greeted by an uproar of applause from his audience. He smiled and took a small bow, but then felt the vibration of his phone inside the pocket of his red sleeveless vest. He pulled out his phone, and saw the alarm notification, which read:

 **AUDITION TIME!**

Noboru's eyes widened as he began to quickly pack up his guitar back into its case. The children were confused by the young man's actions; he always stayed much longer to play for them. Rika ran up to him, a pouty look clearly painted on her face, and demanded some answers.

"Nobo-chan! You can't leave now! You only played one song for us!"

Noboru knelt down and placed a hand on Rika's small shoulder, "Rika, I have something important to handle. It could be my chance to make it big! I could be a star!"

Rika gave a nod and a big smile, "Then good luck, Nobo-chan! We'll be rooting for you!"

Noboru nodded, and he ran off from the park towards the nearest subway station. That day would be the day that he became something greater, something better, something more! That would be the day that Noboru Akahoshi became a star! Just not in the way he thought.

* * *

"He's just so _**cool**_!"

A rather large crowd of teenage girls was rapidly gathering outside of a local electronics store. More specifically, they were crowded around the display TVs in the front window that were playing footage of Japan's newest musical star, a heavy metal musician by the name of Gunmetal Black. He was a mysterious new figure on the music scene, but it wasn't taking him much time to rise up through the ranks. Even though he'd only been out for less than a year, his songs were selling fast and were topping charts on nearly every online music streaming service there was. One critical piece to the mysterious allure of his character was the fact that Gunmetal Black **never** showed his face on stage; his usual outfit was a torn black camo shirt with bands of ammunition wrapped around it, black jeans, a white mohawk, and a black bandana with a skull motif that hid the voice modulator he was rumored to wear during his concerts. Sure, there had been more than the fair share of rumors as to who he really was, and a tremendous amount of supposed "leaks" of his face, but nothing was ever proven to be substantial. With his interesting persona, powerful music, and the aura of mystery surrounding his entire person, Gunmetal Black had been able to raise up an entirely new generation of metalheads all across Japan. And Kioko Tamura _**hated**_ it!

《 _I just don't get it! What does everyone see in this guy! All he does is scream into a microphone and blare ungodly amounts of bass guitar!_ _》_ Kioko screamed her head.

The only reason she was there in the first place was because her friends, who she had been walking home with, had decided to stop to watch some free Gunmetal Black footage. Kioko just rolled her eyes as she watched her friends ogling over the musician on the TV screens. Even though she was annoyed by what was around her, Kioko was willing to put up with her friends' poor taste in music, and men, for a while. That was until she heard a voice that ignited hellfire deep inside her soul; there was only **one** voice that could elicit _that_ kind of reaction from her.

"What's wrong, Tamura? Not enjoying the show? You're just jealous that this music is getting attention than your _precious_ pop music?"

Yoko Izanami. That preppy bitch. Of course she was here. She just _had_ to be. God, Kioko couldn't stand her! Everything single aspect of her as a person was **annoying**! Her obnoxious faux-valley girl accent, her blatant narcissism, and her annoying habit of following popular trends, yet acting as if she herself was the trendsetter.

"No, I'm not jealous. It's just sad to see an entire generation of people make themselves so stupid," Kioko responded. "I mean, if _you_ like it, then that proves this music clearly kills brain cells."

Yoko stepped forward and brought herself a few inches from Kioko's face. Kioko wasn't intimidated by the queen bee's scare tactics, and stared directly into her eyes.

"I don't recommend being this close to me, unless you're actually willing to do something about it," Kioko warned her. "And considering your posh ass isn't even willing to open a door half the time because you constantly fear breaking a nail, then I know you're not willing to hit me."

Yoko scoffed, "Whatever. I'll you at school. Watch your back, blue-eyed bitch."

Yoko snapped her fingers. She and her entire entourage of friends walked off in the opposite direction. Kioko's friends, Kazumi and Hana, then ran up to her.

Kazumi was hysterical, "Kioko! Don't tell me that you actually just picked a **fight** with the most popular girl in the entire school!"

Kioko simply adjusted the panda pin in her pink pigtails and straightened her navy and white school uniform.

"Unlike most of the other girls at school, I'm not scared of that preppy little witch. If she wants a fight with me, then she's got one."

"But what if she comes after us?" Hana blurted out, having to take a puff of her asthma inhaler to keep herself stable. Kioko placed her hands on her friends' shoulders.

"If she tries anything with either of you, then she's going to answer to me," Kioko swore. "Look, you guys can go ahead and head home without me. I forgot that I promised my mom that I would pick up some fruit for her. And the market's a few more blocks away."

"Okay, Kioko," Hana replied. "We'll catch you later then!"

Kioko smiled, and waved a quick farewell to her friends before she started walking down the street to the store. As she walked, her mind raced with thoughts of anger and self-doubt, and she stopped focusing on where she was walking.

《 _ **Ugh!**_ _I can't believe I'm letting that spoiled bratty bitch get under my skin! But, what if she's right? If metal music takes over the industry, my dreams of being a pop idol will be crushed. Oh, Dad, I wish you were here…_ 》

 _ **HONK!**_

Kioko looked up to see the glaring headlights of a Toyota Corolla rapidly approaching her. Frozen in fear, she could only put up her arms instinctively to protect herself. Just as she readied herself for what was, seemingly, the end, Kioko felt something snatch the back of her collar and violently yank her back. The unexpected force caused her to fall backwards onto the person behind her. Kioko opened up her eyes to find that she was safe and sound on the sidewalk.

"What just happened?" Kioko asked as she got to her feet.

A woman's annoyed voice was her answer, "That's an interesting way of saying, 'thank you for saving me'."

Kioko saw that the voice's owner was a young woman, probably older than her by four years or more, with beautiful brown hair in a swirled bouffant hairstyle in a beige business suit with matching beige heels and pair of white glasses with yellow stripes going down the side. She was dusting off sidewalk debris from her outfit, and didn't seem very pleased.

Kioko blushed bright pink with embarrassment, "Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry. Thank you so much. You saved my life!"

The businesswoman stopped her dusting, and instead turned her attention to Kioko. Her look of annoyance went away with a huff as she knelt back down to pick up a stack of bright yellow fliers that she had dropped down. Kioko instantly joined her and quickly began amassing the loose pieces of paper.

"It's okay," spoke the businesswoman. "But you need to be more careful. You can't just walk absentmindedly into a busy street!"

"I know. I was just... caught up in my own head," Kioko told her. "My name is Kioko. Tamura Kioko."

The two females stood back up, and Kioko handed over all of the fliers she had managed to collect back to their proper owner.

"Thank you, Kioko," the businesswoman said. "I'm Sugiyama Yuuki. You can just call me Yuuki though. I have to go, but make sure you pay more attention at the crosswalk next time."

Kioko responded with an overly upbeat voice, a salute, and ridiculous grin, "Can do!"

Yuuki chuckled a bit before ultimately walking off with her fliers. Unbeknownst to her however, one of said fliers had still been on the ground. Kioko noticed it and knelt down to pick up. She had been so busy in trying to help Yuuki collect fliers, that she'd actually forgotten to read what was on them. The letters on the paper were huge and black with an image of the sun printed behind them. It read: **DJ SOLAR FLARE SUPERNOVA TECHNO X-PLOSION!**

"DJ Solar Flare? That name sounds kind of familiar…" Kioko whispered to herself. "No way that business lady is…"

Kioko pondered the thought for a moment, but it seemed too ridiculous to have any actual bearing on reality. She just needed to hurry up, get her groceries, and go home.

* * *

Noboru was getting extremely bored as he waited in line for his chance to perform. This audition was a really rare chance for him. Most people weren't looking to scout too many new artists these days, and those that were were just looking sign the newest idol group. But luckily for Noboru, his sister had managed to manipulate the proper channels to land him a spot in front of an honest-to-God talent scout. Of course, what she had neglected to tell him (likely intentionally) was that he was only one of **100** different people in line waiting to be approved or denied by the scout, and that was only helped fuel the anxiety that was already brewing inside the young musician since he was originally promised the spot. But he tried his best to focus his thoughts and keep his mind on the music. Noboru decided to scope out his competition by looking up and down the line, and thankfully no one seemed all that intimidating. There was an overweight guy with some cymbals, a super tall guy with a cheap-looking flute, and some strung-out chick holding a tambourine and visibly shaking. Two other people of note were probably the least weird looking people there; One guy was in front of Noboru and one in the back. It was almost the guy in the front's turn actually, and he was dressed extremely well with an elegant tuxedo, shiny, black dress shoes, slicked down hair, and beautiful white gloves. He wore a pair of round bifocals and held a beautiful violin in his right hand and its bow in his left. The other guy was… definitely opposite of the first. He was young, at least in his 30s, had a goatee with lengthy black hair that extended part of itself over his left eye, and wore a black fedora with a white ribbon. He was a little taller than Noboru, by like an inch or so, and was pretty buff as far as his arms were concerned. His gut, which bulged out a little from underneath his cerulean, plaid button-up shirt, was another story. He also didn't appear to be holding any actual instruments with him either. Maybe he was a singer? By the time Noboru looked back up, it was time for the elegantly dressed man to go through with his audition. Noboru did find it rather odd that someone would bring a violin to this kind of audition, but, hey, to each his own.

* * *

"Mister… Motomiya, is it?"

The classy man nodded as he sat down in the small chair provided for him. The audition room was rather tiny, but it provided _just_ enough space for a table where the scouts could sit, and a small chair for the performer if they needed it. The man sat down and reached into the inside of his coat. He produced a folded piece of white paper. He unfolded the paper to reveal it was sheet music.

"Mr. Motomiya, do you need something to prop up your music sheet?" asked one of many assistants present in the room.

Motomiya shook his head, "No, no. I just needed to quickly refresh my memory. This song is very dear to me. It's a very old piece, and it took a very long time to find."

As Motomiya moved his bow across the strings of his violin, the various agents started to whisper amongst themselves. The main talent agent, an overweight man in a navy business suit, looked over the file for the musician playing in front him.

"Hmm… this is odd. It says here his address is in an extremely rich part of the city. Why would someone so old and with so much money try out to become a celebrity? With a violin no less!" the overweight agent angrily whispered.

The song Motomiya was playing started out with a quick tempo and loud, exciting chords. The talent scouts were in absolute awe by the fanciful speed and precision by which the masterful musician moved the bow across the strings. The song then changed its tempo in an instant, going from fast and wild to slow and somber. It appeared the music was having some kind of an effect on the listeners as everyone in the room, with the exception of Motomiya himself, started to grab their heads in pain. The lights all throughout the building began to violently flicker. Noboru and rest of the other contestants anxiously looked around in confusion as the ground started to shake.

"Earthquake!" Noboru screamed as the earth shook below his feet.

The building started to rumble and crack. Lighting fixtures were falling from the ceiling onto the panicking people below. Noboru and the others began running for the door as tile and glass started raining down. He managed to squeeze to his way through the mob of frightened, screaming people, and escape out of the door. Outside, he saw people starting to scatter like roaches, and he also saw the guy with the fedora from earlier. Noboru glanced up to see a piece of rubble from a nearby building about to crush the unsuspecting man, and with no time to warn him, Noboru ran up and tackled the man out of the way. The two men quickly got themselves back up and dusted themselves off. The earthquake suddenly stopped and everything was chaotic as all hell.

"It's over," Noboru remarked. "Are you okay?"

The older guy knocked some rubble and debris from his hat and nodded, "I'm fine. Thanks for the save. If it hadn't been for you, I would've been a street pancake."

Noboru nodded in response, "Yeah, that would've been… unfortunate, to say the least. At least it's over now. I'm Akahoshi Noboru by the way."

Noboru extended a slightly shaky hand as a sign of friendship. The other man giggled a bit before reciprocating the gesture. Noboru could definitely tell the guy was strong; his hand felt like it was in the grip of the jaws of life.

"Name's Yamashita. Yamashita Toshiro."

After the handshake was over, and Noboru had secretly winced in pain, The pair turned their attention to the sound of footsteps coming from the audition building. Motomiya stepped outside with a wicked, yet satisfied, smile plastered onto his face. Toshiro and Noboru looked at each other in pure shock that someone could walk out of an **incredibly** damaged building after a **huge** earthquake, and not have so much as a _scratch_ on him!

"Hey, you!" Toshiro yelled out.

Motomiya turned his body around with an unnatural speed, and flashed his disgusting smile at the pair. Noboru was getting the creeps, but Toshiro held firm.

"How'd you just walk out of that? Where are the other people in the building?"

Motomiya laughed, "Oh, I assure you that they're quite dead. I watched them die! I _**reveled**_ in it! Prepare yourselves, humans! Today is the first day of the end of the world! _**HAHAHAHAHA!**_ "

The cackling musician then pointed his violin bow towards the two. Bolts of purple lightning fired out, and Toshiro and Noboru hit the ground. Luckily, the bolts flew over them and struck a car instead. The car exploded into a fiery cloud accompanied by the thunderous roar of an ear-shattering " **BOOM!** ". Motomiya was about to try again until he heard a different kind of thunder. His attention turned to the sky as dark storm clouds were rapidly gathering over the center of the city and red lightning crackled through the air.

Motomiya bowed, "It appears I'll have to cut this short. It's time I got the band back together!"

The man's body turned into a bright green sphere that took off into the sky. Noboru and Toshiro cautiously got themselves up from the ground and looked towards the sky. These clouds were darker than your average thunderstorm, plus most lightning wasn't blood red. Toshiro noticed part of his fedora had caught on fire and extinguished the flames with his hand before putting it back onto his head.

"Just what the hell is going on!?" Toshiro demanded. "I came here to try and get money, and now I'm being told the world is ending?"

"I don't know what's happening or what kind of monster that guy was," Noboru responded. "But I have a strong feeling this about to get a whole lot worse."

"Then I have to go."

Toshiro started running off. Noboru was confused as to why, and instantly gave chase. Toshiro turned his head around to see Noboru was following him; before long the two were running side by side (though truth be told, Noboru was going a lot slower than he could actually run).

"Where do you think you're going?" Noboru asked.

Not missing a beat, Toshiro replied, "I have a daughter that lives in the city. I'm **not** leaving her unprotected, apocalypse or not!"

"Then I'm not going to let you go alone! It's way too dangerous!" Noboru asserted.

"You'd run with a man you just met to go help him save his daughter? You're one stand-up guy, Noboru. Either that, or you're crazy."

* * *

Beyond the veil of the mortal plane, there exist worlds defy typical human comprehension. Some of these worlds are beautiful, others are dangerous, and some are so rarely encountered that even the denizens of other realities find their existence implausible. Such is the case of Harmonia, the realm of music. It's a divine place, with mystical, lush forests stretching as far as the eye can see. The main inhabitants of this realm are small fairy-like creatures called Muses. It is their responsibility to oversee the creativity of human beings and ensure that beauty of the arts, especially music, never fades away. In the center of Harmonia lies a massive tree, the Tree of Melodies, that is home to a very different kind of inhabitant.

"They're back!"

He's as old as time immemorial and wiser than the greatest minds ever known! A powerful mage who has existed to fight against the darkness from the very beginning! He is mighty, he is a hero, he is… he is… running around like a caffeine-fueled chicken with his head cut off!

"Crescendo!" cried a tiny female voice. "You've got to calm down! Panicking is not helping anyone!"

Old man stopped his frantic activities. He stroked his long white beard as he reached into the lengthy sleeve of his golden robes and pulled out a wooden pipe. There was nothing in it, of course, Crescendo hated smoke. But the thing did help him focus his thoughts when his mind was in such a big jumble. His piercing eyes, gray in color and weary from age, stared longingly into the vast forest as the ancient mage stood atop the mighty Tree of Melodies. He retreated back into his home, he had lived inside the beautiful tree for millennia, and began to make preparations. After digging through various assortments of mystical junk he'd accumulated over the years, including an enchanted aegis, kitsune whiskers, venom of the world serpent, an actual eye of Horus, and an angel feather, Crescendo _finally_ found what he had been searching for. It was a rectangular wooden box with gold etchings engraved into its mahogany top; a silver latch was all that kept the box's contents from the prying eyes of the outside world.

The female voice chimed in again, "Is that _the_ box? The one we swore we'd only use in the most **dire** of circumstances? Don't think you're overreacting just a _teensy_ bit?"

"Overreacting? Look at the circumstances!" Crescendo yelled back. "I told you there would be a day when those monsters would escape their confines, but _no_! You always called me paranoid! Looks like I'm right after all and you still won't give me any respect! Besides, now is the perfect time to use these,"

The wizard flipped the box's latch and opened it up. Five small bright orbs of variously colored light, red, blue, yellow, dark purple, and pink, escaped the box and rapidly flew off through the air. It didn't take them long to vanish from sight as Crescendo returned his pipe to his lips.

"Let us just pray that they find who we need."

* * *

Noboru and Toshiro had managed to make their way to the middle of Shibuya just in time to see a massive ocean of people panicking all around the city. It was obvious that the ominous clouds they had seen earlier were gathering directly over the city, as the eerie flashes of crimson lightning bolts evilly illuminated the entire city. Noboru stopped running as he looked into the mass clouds that brewed a hellish storm. Toshiro quickly followed suit as he berated the young man for stopping in the first place.

"Come on, we've got to keep going!" Toshiro demanded.

"Toshiro, I hate to say, but it might be too late," Noboru explained, pointing a finger skyward. "Look!"

Toshiro's gaze shifted to the heavens where he could easily witness the rapidly increasing amount of lightning appearing inside the storm's epicenter. Then, without warning, a dazzling beam of concentrated red lightning blasted its way through the earth! Everyone was effectively blinded by the phenomenon for a little while. When he looked back up again, Toshiro and Noboru saw that the entire street was gone, turned into nothing but a deep crater by the lightning's raw elemental power. They didn't have much time for the crater's appearance to sink in because the ground began to shake again. Less violently than the first quake, but still enough to cause substantial damage. Something was _**rising**_ out the pit! And whatever it was, it was coming fast. What appeared out of the ground was something truly nightmarish. It was a skull, or rather it had the appearance of a skull, but it was massive and floating 25 feet in the air! The structure was black with horns sticking out of either side of the "skull". Its "teeth" were bloody red and the area around where the eye sockets would normally be was cracked and hellish flames burned in place of real eyes. The clouds began to scatter and sky returned to its normal blue state, but most people would rather have dealt with some strange stratus than what seemed to be the Halloween decorations of Satan himself. The green energy ball, the one Motomiya had become earlier, floated down to earth. However, instead of Motomiya revealing himself, some kind of monster was in his stead. It was short, no more than three feet at most, and had a large head relative to his body size. His hair was seemingly made from strips of old parchment paper that were rolled together into the shape of a powdered wig. The creature's body was rotund and fat, clad in a forest green coat that looked something from the 18th century, and he had buckled shoes on his feet. His skin was pale and his face hideous with massive nose, mouth, and teeth, and his eyes covered by a pair of blackened bifocals.

"It's here! They're here! Finally, we'll make our comeback!" the monster cried.

The skull structure opened up its mouth and three more large energy spheres flew out of it: one silver, another was multicolored, and yet another was hot pink. They float to the ground next the first creature before assuming their own monstrous forms. The silver orb morphed into a hulking beast with a broad chest and shoulders, as well as beefy legs. Its body was almost entire metallic silver, all except for a couple of black lines on its inner thighs and arms. Its hand ended in razor sharp points and feet were clad in black combat boots that had spikes leading all the way up the front of the legs. A striking black cape flowed from the pointed armor on top of its shoulders and billowed in the wind. Its face was easily the most terrifying part of its body; it was like a combination between a skull and a silver Roman centurion helmet. The crest atop the helmet was burning with navy flames and sunglasses covered up the eyes of the skull. The pink orb transformed into a much more humanoid form, but it was covered in hot pink fur and had on a short light blue dress with a small purse wrapped around its waist with a yellow belt and white go-go boots. Its arms were pink too, but unlike the legs, they had lighter pink stripes and white nails that resembled the claws of a wildcat. The face was almost human, but the whiskers and mouth full of sharp fangs made that an impossibility. This monster also had very long blue hair, cat ears on its head, and yellow eyes like that of a feral cat. The last of the monsters, born from the multicolored energy sphere was certainly… unique. Its skinny body was covered in all kinds of various zany patterns and colors, and was extremely difficult to stare at for long periods of time without hurting the eyes. From its head hung a mop of long curly hair that appeared to be made of a golden material. The golden hair was so long, in fact, that it covered the monster's eyes, but not its menacing maw of a mouth. The mouth was huge, taking up most of the monster's face, and filled to the max with sharp teeth that were twisted into devilishly vicious grin. The Motomiya monster couldn't have seemed more elated.

"Megatalico! Katty Purry! Yankov! I've been waiting so long to see you again! It's been so long!" he cried.

The pink monster, Katty, knelt down and gave her squat comrade a quick kiss on his cheek. He instantly lit up bright red, and tried to cover up his face to hide his embarrassment.

"Aw, Ludvig, I always know in my heart that you'd save us!" Katty cheered. "Even when these two bozos gave up hope on you!"

Megatalico decided to add his own opinions into the mix, "Not like I was without fault. We got tossed into the bowels of hell and were stuck there for almost all of eternity! And I was supposed to put my faith in that **shrimp** to get us out!? Get real!"

"You're never grateful!" Katty fired back. "The least you could do is say 'thank you'!"

Yankov got in between his two bickering compatriots and placed his arms around both their shoulders, much to their chagrin.

"Guys, guys! Come on! We just got out. We'll have plenty of time to argue with each other _after_ we finish destroying humanity!" he said with an excited grin. "Don't tell me you guys don't the overwhelming urge to blow something up?"

"Now that you mention it…" Megatalico said as he shoved Yankov's arm off himself. "I could use some destruction!"

Megatalico snapped his fingers, summoning a sword with a hilt in the shape of the letter "M". He used the weapon as a conductor of sorts, discharging energy from it, and blasting the multiple buildings around him. As if people weren't panicking enough already, the chaos got cranked up to eleven. Katty reached into her bag and pulled out an object resembling a metronome. She placed it onto the ground and set its tempo. The needle started to move slowly at first, but the tempo quickened rapidly! Faster and faster! Then the metronome **phased right into the** _ **ground**_ **!** This caused another horde of monsters to spawn right out of the earth. Their bodies were humanoid, but they were all black and covered in white striations; the metronome needle became like a large horn between the creatures' purple eyes, and it was constantly moving left and right as the monsters swarmed around.

"Metro-Gnomes! Get to work!" Katty ordered.

Toshiro and Noboru could only stare in disbelief as the events that had just transpired were part of a nightmare, and they were _way_ overdue for a wake-up call! Ludvig looked around and noticed the two familiar humans amidst the crowd of screaming people fearful for their lives.

"You two again?! I should have finished you off before! Metro-Gnomes, destroy them!" the small monster yelled, jumping from his fury.

The Metro-Gnomes, odd as they were, were also very loyal to their superiors. A whole group of them turned their attention to the new targets. Noboru was ready to run for the hills, but Toshiro stood his ground. He was never one to back down from a fight, and this was no different. Noboru tried vehemently to plead with the man.

"Toshiro-san! Please, we can't just fight these things! They're not human!"

Toshiro's only response was to crack his knuckles as the Metro-Gnomes started to swarm around them like insects. They were completely surround within the span of ten seconds, and there was absolutely no chance of them escaping without knocking a couple heads. Toshiro through the first punch, a mean right hook to one Metro-Gnome's jaw. Another tried to attack from behind, but it was interrupted by Noboru grabbing its wrist, and then kicking it repeatedly in the stomach. Toshiro was dealing out punches left and right, knocking down his opponents with relative ease. He even grabbed one of the Metro-Gnomes and started swinging it around as a weapon. Noboru was definitely the more inexperienced fighter! He was a musician! He shouldn't **have to** be fighting! Thankfully, he was quick on his feet and had some experience with gymnastics that were coming in handy. He managed to clear enough room to ensure he could maneuver himself better. After a string of fast-paced backflips, he leapt into the air. It was the set up to an elaborate jump kick that luckily hit its mark: two Metro-Gnomes that were standing side by side. Thinking back to an old martial arts movie he had watched a week before, Noboru did a spin kick to another Metro-Gnome, then delivered an uppercut to one more. The two men were doing well in defending themselves, but they were starting to get tired; they couldn't keep this up forever. Both soon found themselves grabbed by their arms, and no matter how much they struggled, they couldn't break free. They were tossed through the air and landed violently onto the ground.

"Toshiro…" Noboru said, wincing in pain. "Can you get back up?"

"I hate to admit it, but I don't think we can fight all these things by ourselves," Toshiro replied.

Just as the Metro-Gnomes were about to set upon the two defeated humans, a saving grace appeared in the form of a pink blur. It came in fast, and the Metro-Gnomes were no match as they flipped, kicked, and punched down to the floor. Toshiro looked up to see that his rose-colored savior was actually a young girl with bright pink hair and wearing a high school uniform. How humiliating! Two fit adult men needing to saved at the hands of a teenage girl! Toshiro would never live that down! But not being ones to look a gift horse in the mouth, the battered duo took advantage of the opportunity to scamper away into a nearby alleyway. Soon, the same pink-haired girl followed suit and raced after them. All three of them decided to duck into an abandoned building to escape their attackers, and have a moment to catch their breath.

"Thank you…" Noboru muttered in between huffs. "Very much."

"Yeah," added Toshiro. "And, uh, not to sound ungrateful or anything, but… do you think you could keep this whole thing under wraps. I kinda have a reputation to uphold."

The young girl locked the door they entered through, and walked upto Toshiro. She then smacked him upside the head.

"Yeah, sure thing," was her bubbly reply. "Just don't expect me to bail your old ass out next time."

Getting a better a look at her, Noboru saw the girl had naturally blue eyes, and she wasn't exactly lacking in the chest department. She leaned up against an aged wall and properly introduced herself.

"My name's Kioko. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Noboru."

"Toshiro."

"So," Kioko said. "Noboru, Toshiro, just exactly what are you guys doing taking on monsters in the middle of Shibuya?"

Toshiro fixed his hair only to notice his hat was missing. He was… **not** happy about it, to put it lightly. While he was worrying about that, Noboru actually answered Kioko's question.

"To be fair, Kioko, we could ask the same question."

Kioko scoffed a bit, "Well, I was on my way home. Until the earth decided to dance the Macarena, a portal to hell opened up in the sky, and I happened to see two helpless idiots getting their sorry butts handed to them."

"Point taken."

"Well," Toshiro said. "All I know is that there are people still out there who could get hurt. My daughter included. I'm not going to sit here and cower when she's still out there! Plus they made me lose my fedora! I have more of them, but some shit just ain't right, guys."

Before Toshiro could so much as head for the door, the sound of shattering glass triggered an alert response. The trio of people looked around the empty room they were in, but all they could see were a bunch of old cardboard boxes and wooden pallets. They cautiously looked around to find the source of the disturbance, but to no avail. The best evidence they had happened to find was the fragments of glass that look they had fallen from… the skylight?

"But that's impossible!" Noboru argued. "Something can't just come in through a window that high unless it was on the roof or flew in from the sky."

Kioko saw something from the corner of her eye. It was quick, and only there for less than a second. There was a flash and a buzzing noise, and then it was just… gone. It didn't take Kioko long to voice her findings to the others.

"Did you guys hear that?" she asked. "That buzzing noise?"

"Buzzing noise? Kioko, what are you-"

Noboru was about to ask, but then he heard the sound too. But it wasn't too difficult to pinpoint the source. Above the three humans were three floating orbs: red, blue, and pink, and while they were much smaller than the ones that had spawned Megatalico, Katty Purry, and Yankov, none of them were willing to take the risk considering what was going on. Not that they had much time to react, however, as the orbs instantly started to chase after them. All three people bolted for the door, but no matter how fast they were, the orbs proved faster. Kioko was the first to be hit, the pink orb landed right over her heart and was absorbed into her body; she vanished with a bright pink flash. Toshiro was the next victim The blue orb chased him down and was absorbed into his heart, and he too vanished in a flash of color. Noboru was the last to go, but oddly enough, he wasn't as scared as the others were. If you asked why, he likely couldn't tell you, but deep down in his heart, Noboru somehow knew that things were about to get interesting. The red orb found its way into Noboru's body, an interesting feeling to put it simply, and he saw nothing but a bright red as he also vanished.

* * *

Noboru opened his eyes slowly, and found himself in a completely different location. It was almost like the inside of a weird emporium. Jars of various unknown organs, powders, and liquids lined shelves all along the teal-coated walls. A wooden spiral staircase wrapped around a massive gold pillar led up to even more unknown levels of wherever it was Noboru had found himself. Once he got his bearings, he could hear voices coming from above him. He stealthily crept his way up the staircase to the next floor. It was much the same layout as the first level, but it was lined with a seemingly infinite amount of bookshelves filled with assortments of books and tomes, many of which had words on their spines in languages Noboru had never seen before. The voices weren't on that floor either. So, another trip up the stairs it was. This time, the room was much different and larger than the previous two. The floor was coated in gold tile and a huge mirror was located at the very back of it. Three magical white crystals floated from the ceiling and allowed the room to have more than ample lighting. On the wall to his left, Noboru saw a symbol that looked like a slanted star with the staff and flag of an eighth note coming from the back of it. Noboru finally spotted the source of the voices he had heard… it was Toshiro and Kioko! They were standing next to some other people: a lady in a business suit and another really tall guy with shaggy hair that was blonde on top and black underneath;he was wearing jeans and a black sleeveless hoodie. All four of them were standing front of some old man with a super long beard and clad in golden robes. He looked as if he was giving them all a tour of the room.

"And this where I can keep an eye on- Oh! Noboru! Come, come!" the old man beckoned. All the others turned around as Noboru finished walking up the staircase.

"H-how do you know my name?"

The old man chuckled, "Oh, my dear boy. There are many things I know. Especially about our current situation. My name is Crescendo, please join us. This is important."

Noboru walked up and joined the others as the old man continued to exposit on the grand, rune-covered mirror in front of them.

"As I was saying, this is the Eye of the Storm. It can peer into many other realms, but I only use it to keep an eye on Earth from time to time. It'll be vital in our operations."

Kioko pulled Noboru close and whispered to him some much needed information,"Noboru, this is Kuromichi Taeko and Sugiyama Yuuki. Taeko is, well, as you plainly see, a giant. And Yuuki is an accountant… and a DJ. She also saved me from getting run over."

Taeko flashed a small smile, "Hi, I guess."

When they all looked back up, Crescendo was looking rather displeased that they weren't giving him their undivided attention. He sighed as he waved his hand and the image of a galaxy appeared in glass of the Eye of the Storm.

"Since the beginning of time, music has existed. It is an underlying force in our universe that is as powerful as gravity or magnetism. The most powerful songs that forge the very fabric of reality are the Song of Light and the Song of Darkness."

The mirror's image changed to that of a kingdom with a big castle and small villages, then the entire thing went up in flames. The next image was of clashing armies fighting bloody wars across a battlefield.

"It was said that anyone who gained knowledge of these songs would gain the powers of a god. Complete and total control over the whole of creation. Wars were fought. Countries were slaughtered. It was chaos, and no ever managed to tap into either songs' power. Until one such group, a faction of selfish magic users, tried to tap into the Song of Light, but only found darkness in its place."

Yet another image transition displayed silhouettes of people, then their bodies were struck by bolts of energy. They began to twist and change until they became much more monstrous.

"Their souls and bodies were corrupted. They were no longer human. They call themselves the Hellfire Musicians Akudoma. After being corrupted, they sought out to destroy all music by destroying all of humanity. They led an unholy crusade against humans, and almost succeeded in wiping them out."

The mirror then reflected five colored eighth notes, red, blue, yellow, pink, and black, and they were dropped into the hands of five more human silhouettes, transforming them into their respective colors.

"Until I was able to assemble a team of brave humans who possessed a small fraction of the Song of Light in their hearts. They manage to condense that power to seal away the Akudoma, and I personally foresaw the destruction of the each physical copy of the Song of Darkness. Or at least I thought I did."

The mirror's image changed to real time scenes of the Akudoma laying waste to Tokyo. The fear, the panic, the sheer **evil** of it all… it was horrible to witness. Then it went completely blank.

"This is all an interestingly **crazy** story, but I fail to see how it involves us," Yuuki complained.

"Isn't it obvious?" Crescendo asked. "You five possess that same spark of light in your hearts as the warriors I had chosen so long ago. It falls on you save to your world from the Akudoma, and you are the _**only**_ ones who can do it."

Crescendo waved his hands once more. This time, small objects resembling flutes appeared in each humans' hands. They were made from a chalky, clay-like substance, and very old from the looks of them.

Crescendo explained, "These are your magical transformation devices. To access the powers of music-"

"No, no, no! Crescendo, you are **not** giving them those old things!" interjected a feminine voice. "Update your equipment once in a while!"

The unknown speaker appeared to be a small ball of white light, but the light dimmed enough to reveal… a fairy? Well, it looked like a fairy. She was only 5 inches tall, had silver wings, long blonde hair (relative to her size, anyway), and an immaculate, tiny white dress. She landed on Crescendos shoulder with a disapproving look on her face.

"You must be insane to give modern humans those prehistoric... sticks!" she berated. "I'm so sorry. He's old as dirt, and forgets that the world actually updates its technology. Thankfully, I'm the more creative of the two of us."

Crescendo scoffed at her remarks, "Then what would you suggest, Euterpe? Since you want to be so opinionated."

"Leave it to me, C!"

With a snap of her dainty little fingers, Euterpe used her magical skills to transform those dingy flutes into small MP3 players. They were bulky and had a slot in the top. Each one had an electronic screen and was differently colored depending on its user. Noboru had red; Toshiro's blue; Kioko got pink; Yuuki had yellow; Taeko was left with black. The main control button was shaped like a star. These devices also came with another piece: miniature vinyl records with the "star note" symbol on one side and respectively colored labels on the other.

"These are your Rhythm Changers and Beat Records. You'll need to insert the record, press the play button, raise it to the sky, then yell, "Beatranger, Rock On!". It's as easy as that! Now, hurry! The Akudoma are still out there! Good luck!"

* * *

Before they could ask anymore questions, the entire group was teleported back to Tokyo. They noticed they were right outside Shinjuku Gyoen and could see the crowds of terrified people making mad dashes as the monsters invaded the park.

"So, did we just get chosen by a wizard and a fairy to fight music demons?" Noboru said. "I-I just want make sure we're clear about that."

Euterpe's voice coming from his Rhythm Changer swiftly answered his question.

"First off, I'm a **muse**. And second, it'd _really_ nice of you to actually get to the fighting part of your job!"

Yuuki shook her head, "I can't do this. This is insane! None of us are fighters! I'm an accountant, for crying out loud! I don't fight monsters!"

The usually silent Taeko decided to finally contribute something to the group.

"But you're a DJ too, right?"

"I- that's not important though! It's just a hobby!"

"You're lying."

"Excuse me?!"

"I can see it in your eyes. You **love** being a DJ. Music is just as important to you as it is to any of us. Music is what got me off the streets!"

"I've always wanted to be a pop idol," Kioko added. "My dad always used to believe I could make it. If I keep that dream alive, then… he's never really gone."

"My harmonica got me through a rough time in prison," Toshiro admitted.

"I may not completely understand this entire situation myself, but… I do know one thing," Noboru began. "To me, music is the heart and soul of humanity. I need to play and sing just like I need to eat and breathe! And if I know that there's some monsters that want to destroy something that precious, and _**I**_ have the power to fight back? Then I'm gonna fight them with everything I got, dammit!"

Yuuki pondered the situation for a second, but she ultimately realized that that the others were right. All of their Beat Records started to light up and flash. They took it as a good omen.

"Now who's with me!?"

* * *

"All of this human terror has been absolutely inspirational!" Ludvig exclaimed. He pulled out a piece of his hair and unrolled it into a full page of sheet music. "It's been so long since I've been able to make music like this!"

"Yeah, well, your taste in music sucks!" Kioko taunted from a distance.

Megatalico, Katty, Yankov, Ludvig, and all of the Metro-Gnomes turned around and noticed Noboru, Taeko, Toshiro, Kioko, and Yuuki standing together triumphantly. Megatalico outstretched his sword and pointed it directly at the quintet of humans.

"Few humans have challenged the likes of me" Megatalico declared. "Those that have were either very _brave_ or very _foolish_. Which are you?"

"I'm just pissed off you guys made me lose my hat!" Toshiro yelled in response. "But enough talk. Let's get to the action!"

All of five humans thrust their Rhythm Changer forwards. Using their right hands, they inserted the Beat Records inside. They then brought back the changer to use the play button.

"Record Set!" cried the devices.

They pressed the top point of the star button, causing each of the Rhythm Changers to cry out differently.

"Queue up! Rock 'n Roll!" exclaimed Noboru's.

"Queue up! The Blues!" was Toshiro's call.

"Queue up! Techno!" called out Yuuki's.

"Queue up! Heavy Metal!" was Taeko's cry.

"Queue up! Pop!" is what Kioko received.

They thrust their arms forward again, did a circular motion, and then raised the Rhythm Changers to the sky.

"Ready to Rock?" asked the Rhythm Changers.

The group loudly proclaimed:

 _ **BEATRANGER, ROCK ON!**_

* * *

Noboru could hear the sounds of an electric guitar wailing, followed by the loud crash of drums, and the slow, steady beats from a bass guitar. It felt like rock music was coursing through his veins as he was surrounded by red musical notes. They connected themselves to his body, creating a strange type of suit. It was bright red on the legs and the right side of the chest. A triangular patch of white was sectioned off from the rest of the costume by a shiny gold border, and a white stripe led down from the back of the triangle down the middle of the left arm. Three gold lines also stretched from the bottom right side of Noboru's torso to the lower middle of his chest. The gloves of the suit had wide cuffs with golden trim; the boots had a similar design. A black belt with a star note belt buckle and a red holster materialized itself around Noboru's waist. A pair of sunglasses made of red energy appeared in Noboru's hand and he applied them to his face. They transformed into a red helmet with a black visor in the shape of the star musical note and a silver mouthpiece that resembled a speaker; it also had a slight lion motif. The golden image of a guitar appeared on the white area of Noboru's chest in a flash of light, and his transformation was complete.

Toshiro heard the smooth melodies of a bass guitar, harmonica, and trumpet resounding in his ears. Blue musical notes swirled around him to create his costume, which was essentially the exact same as Noboru's, except every red aspect of his costume was blue for Toshiro's suit. A fedora made of blue energy formed in Toshiro's hand. He suavely flipped it into the air, and it landed right onto his head, forming into his wolf-themed helmet. His chest emblem appeared as a golden fedora.

Yuuki could see the dazzling lights and feel the powerful bass of techno music pumping through her core. Yellow musical notes forged her suit; it was yellow and came with a short, white skirt attached to her belt. A pair of yellow energy-constructed headphones appeared in Yuuki's hands, and she put them on; they formed into a helmet that bared a firefly motif. Her chest emblem was a golden pair of headphones.

Taeko's ears were filled by the deafening blare of heavy metal. The power of the bass guitars and drum charged him up with energy. Swirling black musical notes formed his black costume. A beanie made of purple energy formed in his hands and he put it on, creating a black scorpion themed helmet. His chest emblem was a golden pentagram.

Kioko felt happy and carefree as the upbeat sounds of pop music flowed through her body. She twirled around like ballerina as pink musical notes created her suit around her. Her's was pink, and like Yuuki's, had a skirt. A hair bow made of pink light was created in Kioko's hand, and she gently set it into her hair. It expanded into a pink helmet that looked like a panda bear. The chest emblem etched onto her uniform was a golden heart.

* * *

The forces of the Akudoma stood in awe as the warriors' new uniforms glittered in the sun like precious jewels. All four of the major monsters were taken aback by the revelation of the humans' newfound power.

"They've got the power of light music!" Katty exclaimed, worried. "Oh nyo!"

"This is killing my mood!" Yankov whined. "Do something, Megatalico!"

Megatalico snickered, "So you have some fancy powers? It makes no difference to me! Crescendo can watch as his precious warriors are killed and turned into ash. Metro-Gnomes, attack!"

The foot soldiers heeded their master's command and ran headstrong for the heroes. But they weren't about to be beaten that easily. The team split up into three parts: Noboru and Toshiro, Yuuki and Taeko, and Kioko going solo. Noboru and Toshiro managed to mostly fight for themselves. Noboru was able to strike quicker than his partner; he was a red blur as he delivered rapid kicks and punches across the battlefield. He grabbed the arms of two Metro-Gnomes and flipped them over onto the ground. Then he roundhouse kicked one more of the enemies standing behind him, and backflipped away to give himself more room to fight. Toshiro was easily adjusting to his newly enhanced strength, and used it to great effect by beating down swaths of Metro-Gnomes. He jumped up into the air and body slammed down onto a group of Metro-Gnomes. Once he was back on the ground, Toshiro slammed back down with an elbow attack. He picked up two Metro-Gnomes by their necks, slammed their heads together, and tossed them away like ragdolls.

"Toshiro!" Noboru yelled to get his friend's attention. "Give me some leverage!"

Toshiro started tossing Metro-Gnomes into the air for Noboru to use as stepping stones. Noboru jumped up and hopped across the helpless Metro-Gnomes like a frog does with lily pads. While Noboru was conducting his strategy, Taeko and Yuuki were doing their best to take on their opponents. Taeko was having much easier time while he fought. He blocked an incoming punch and kicked the Metro-Gnome away via a boot to the chest. One Metro-Gnome tried its hand to punch Taeko from behind, but it missed, and this allowed Takeo to grab its wrist and flip it over his shoulder. Yuuki was way too nervous to actually put up any actual fight, so she simply ducked and dodged under every attack thrown her way. It was working… up until the point she was surrounded. Taeko tried to fight his way to her, but the sheer amount of foes kept him from reaching her.

Taeko called out to her, "Yuuki! You have to fight back! I can't reach you!"

Yuuki was gripped with absolute terror as the Metro-Gnomes started to creep in, closer and closer. She felt something move on her left hip. She saw the holster that hung from there, and the weapon it carried inside. Without thinking, she pulled it out and pulled the trigger. Sparks exploded everywhere as she gunned down the Metro-Gnomes with yellow energy blasts. Yuuki got a chance to have a better look at the weapon in her hands. It looked like a G-clef attached to a handle and a blaster barrel going through the top.

"Clef Buster! Fire!" Yuuki cried as she continued to shoot down Metro-Gnomes as if they were fish in a barrel. A stray blast narrowly missed Kioko as she was fighting, and the pink warrior was not slow to voice her ire.

"Watch you're aiming that thing! You nearly shot me in the ass!"

"My bad!" Yuuki meekly replied. Though in her head, she wondered: What ass? The girl was all boobs!

Kioko's fighting prowess had only seen a drastic increase from her newfound powers. She was able to take down one Metro-Gnome by elbowing it in the face and chest, another was beaten by rapid palm strikes furiously directed into its lower abdomen, and yet another fell to the swift yet satisfying justice of an uppercut to the jaw. In other words, the young lady was opening up a can of whoop-ass that the likes of _God_ had never seen before. Meanwhile, Noboru had managed to make his way over to Megatalico and the other generals. They startled by the human's bravery, but Megatalico was no coward. He rushed forward, and attempted to impale Noboru with his blade. Luckily, it missed its mark and only grazed Noboru's chest.

"Fighting an unarmed man with a sword seems like a coward's move!" Noboru taunted.

"No one calls me a coward and lives!" Megatalico screamed, fuming.

He started to slash away with wild abandon! Noboru did his best to dodge what he could, but Megatalico did managed to land a lot more hits than he missed. The final slash across Noboru's chest sent the wannabe rockstar flying. When he crashed back down, Megatalico was walking toward him with his blade outstretched, and ready to deliver the killing blow.

Noboru complained as he tried to crawl away, "As much as I enjoy getting my butt kicked, I could use some help over here!"

Euterpe's voice came through his Rhythm Changer, "Noboru, use the down button, then hit 'play'! Hurry!"

Noboru rolled to the left just as Megatalico brought down his sword. He pulled out his Rhythm Changer and followed the muse's instructions.

 **Rock On!** _ **Riff Slasher!**_

A bright red flash appeared in Noboru's hand. It dimmed to reveal a red and black sword with guitar strings on the blade, two gold horns coming from the pommel, and the head of an electric guitar on its hilt. Noboru smiled underneath his helmet and ran back into battle. He and Megatalico clashed blades, but even with his new weapon, Noboru was still the lesser swordsman. And Megatalico took advantage of that fact by knocking Noboru's sword from his hands, then grabbed him by the neck.

"Pathetic human. It's as I told you," Megatalico said, his grip tightening. "The only warriors to face against me are either brave or foolish. You honestly thought you could best me? **ME?!** Time for you to learn that Crescendo only sent you to die a fool's death."

 **Rock On!** _ **Blues Gunners!**_

Before he could make good on his threat, Megatalico was shot in the back by a barrage of blue blasts. He dropped Noboru, who grabbed his own sword and repeatedly slashed Megatalico, then rejoined his teammates. Megatalico turned around to find Toshiro wielding two blue mini-SMGs with magazines that looked like harmonicas. Toshiro wasn't done however, and continued to spray down the monster with gusto. Some would call this overkill. Toshiro called it "fun". The entire team reunited as Toshiro's attacks had rendered Megatalico much weaker than before. He hobbled his way back over to his fellow Akudoma.

"Thanks, Toshiro," Noboru said, grateful.

Toshiro put a hand on his shoulder, "Hey, it's what I do."

"This isn't over!" Yankov swore. "We'll destroy you… you… who are you guys anyway?"

Noboru triumphantly yelled out, "Live and on stage!"

Noboru played the air guitar, spun around, then posed.

"The Rocking Leader! Rhythm Red!"

Toshiro put his hand to his helmet and mimed tipping his hat.

"The Heartbroken Soul! Rhythm Blue!"

Yuuki put one hand to her ear and used the other to pretend to play a turntable.

"The Explosive DJ! Rhythm Yellow!"

Taeko did the sign of the horns with both hands, then made a fist over his heart, and thrust it forward.

"The Darkened Heart! Rhythm Black!"

Kioko blew kisses, made a heart sign over her chest, and then did the peace sign over her visor with her right hand.

"The Upbeat Idol! Rhythm Pink!"

Noboru stepped up and the others crowded around him. They all placed a hand over their hearts before doing a sweeping motion.

They yelled in unison, "The dark power inside of you is nothing but evil, but the music in our hearts is the Song of Justice!"

Noboru cheered, "Together, we are: Rhythm Sentai Beatranger!"

"Beatranger?" asked Taeko and Toshiro, simultaneously.

"I like it," said Kioko. "It sounds pretty cool. Right, Yuuki-san?"

"Yeah, I guess," Yuuki replied. "I've heard worse."

"So, Megatalico, what's it going to be?" Katty asked her ally.

Megatalico was torn. On one hand, he was a proud warrior and a damn good fighter. But on the other hand, he hadn't had a real fight in centuries, and as much as he hated to admit it, he was rusty. The ashamed, metallic warrior got himself off of the ground by using his sword. Though beaten at the moment, this wasn't the last time these new "heroes" had seen of the Akudoma.

Megatalico eyes burned with hatred and he vowed, "Savor the feeling of your victory this day. For it is not a sensation that will befall you again."

Ludvig, Yankov, Katty, and Megatalico transformed back into energy spheres and flew back into the giant skull structure. A crimson rift ripped open the sky, the skull slowly flew inside, and the rift closed itself with dancing lightning and screeching thunder.

"Where'd they go?" asked Toshiro.

"Who cares? At least they're gone," said Yuuki. "Now I can do this!"

Then, without warning, Yuuki fainted! The others started to freak out as they tried their hands at waking her up. They were teleported back to the Tree of Melodies and their Beatranger suits dissipated into musical notes of their respective colors. They saw Crescendo and Euterpe waiting for them. And a satisfied smile decorated the old wizard's face.

"Congratulations, _Beatrangers_. You have overcome your enemies for now. You should be happy!"

Toshiro, peeved, berated the wizard, "You crazy old bastard! We almost died out there! And Yuuki fainted! Plus the Akudoma got away!"

Crescendo did his best to talk Toshiro down, "They didn't 'get away', Toshiro. They've probably just retreated back to their home dimension. They'll be back. They'll never stop coming. Not until you destroy them."

Euterpe floated over Yuuki's face and sprinkled a glittery powder into her mouth. Almost instantly, she sprang back to consciousness, nearly kicking Taeko in the face as she did.

"Watch it!" Taeko yelled. "I don't mind having a black _helmet_ , but a black _eye_ is another matter!"

"I had the weirdest dream… I was a superhero that fought these weird music demons. There was a wizard and a fairy… and… and..."

Yuuki looked up. It hit her like a tsunami. Everything she had "dreamt" was real. She _was_ a superhero, she _did_ fight demons, and… she fainted. How lame!

" _ **Ahem**_! I am **not** a **fairy**! I am a _**muse**_ , a being of pure creativity and imagination! Why I ought to…" Euterpe revved up her tiny fists, but Crescendo simply grabbed her by the wings and lifted her away.

"Don't mind her," instructed Crescendo. "She's always angry. But you should be mindful of the future. You five carry a great burden on your shoulders, but you must remember that you aren't carrying it alone. The song inside of you is powerful; it can do great things. Like this."

Crescendo whistled, snapped his fingers, and a brand new blue and white-striped fedora appeared on top of Toshiro's head. The man was shocked at first, but, hey, free hat!

"I have the utmost faith in all of you. You've got a long road ahead of you, but the power of music will see you through anything. Never stop believing that. **Ever**."

Crescendo waved his hand again and all five Beatrangers were returned to their original locations. They all felt differently about the entirety of the situation. Noboru felt a rush of excitement, but Yuuki still felt as if she was having a fever dream. All Toshiro could do was look over his Rhythm Changer in his hand and laugh at the absurdity of it all. Kioko was taking it all in stride and wasted no time in covering the back of her Rhythm Changer in stickers. And Taeko? Well, he didn't really have much time to ponder the day's events. After all, he had shows to play and not a lot of time to get ready. He could already hear the screaming crowd of excited fans and the booming voice of an announcer:

 _ **Everybody give it up for GUNMETAL BLACK!**_

 **THE END**

* * *

 **A/N: There's not much I can say when it comes to deleting my old stories. They're gone. They were fun while they lasted, but I just never had enough to time to write them, and I just didn't want to leave them there. Plus I didn't really feel all that inspired to work on them anymore. However, now I'm back and I have a lot more time on my hands than before, so that means it's time for a new story! This chapter was simply meant to introduce our cast and set up plot, so trust me, the character stuff is coming later.**


	2. Album 2: The DJ's Shining Spark

**Music…**

 **It means so many different things to so many different people.**

 **But there's an unknown side to music. A side that is powerful and dangerous.**

 **There are those out there that want to use music to spread their evil and chaos, but thankfully there are also those who use music to spread goodness and light.**

 **Evil, beware those who carry the song of justice in their hearts! They are the…**

 **RHYTHM SENTAI! BEATRANGER!**

* * *

 _ **Song: Whatever It Takes by Imagine Dragons**_

* * *

 **A/N: This chapter features the very first monster of the week, and so it will also be the first chapter to have the Monster Music Playlist game! Every monster of the week will be based on a song/band/musician, and it's up to you guys to see if you can guess them properly! They'll start off simple, but I'll try to make the references to the songs increasingly more difficult as the story continues, and maybe I'll even throw a prize for the winners ;). Now, let's rock!**

* * *

 _ **BEEP!**_

 _ **BEEP!**_

 _ **BEEP!**_

With a hard slam of her left hand, Yuuki Sugiyama turned off the blaring sound of her alarm clock. It was 6:15 in the morning, the time she always got herself ready for work. Yuuki got herself out of bed, clad in her light yellow silk pajamas, and walked over to her bathroom. She rummaged through her various drawers of hygiene and beauty products until she found what she was looking for: a small teal toothbrush and a half-used tube of toothpaste. She brushed her teeth, then moved into her kitchen to make breakfast for herself and her… roommate.

" _Mrow!"_

"Good morning, Akiko," Yuuki greeted to her gray Kurilian bobtail cat.

Akiko hopped up onto the kitchen counter, " _Meow_ ,"

Yuuki opened up her cabinets, grabbed a can of wet cat food, and set it down onto the floor for her pet to enjoy. While Akiko enjoyed her breakfast, Yuuki had grabbed some vanilla yogurt and an apple for herself. She sat down to her small breakfast, and decided to turn the TV on. It was already on the news, and the anchorman on screen had just wrapped up the daily feel good piece about a little girl and her pet fish.

"... And we wish Akira and her koi fish the best of luck," concluded the newsman. "In more pressing matters, Shibuya and its surrounding areas are still reeling from the events that transpired over a week ago. A legion of monsters reportedly burst out from the ground and destroyed billions of dollars in public and private property. Luckily, this reign of terror did not last long."

Yuuki's eyes widened as she saw footage of the Beatrangers' first battle against the Akudoma. Seeing herself as Rhythm Yellow was kind of surreal, and Yuuki still had times where she couldn't believe it all. She was a superhero! She fought demons and met a wizard and a muse! Hell, she even went to _**another dimension**_! However, even with all that, Yuuki didn't really feel all that different. She was still just Yuuki. The same Yuuki who got pelted with spitballs all the way up until high school for being a "teacher's pet". The same Yuuki who fainted at the sight of a single drop of blood. And the exact same Yuuki who never stood up for herself, who let people walk all over her like a doormat, and never received even the slightest bit of respect from her coworkers! Being Rhythm Yellow probably wasn't really going to change anything for her. She shouldn't dwell on those thoughts for long though. After all, it would be a _**long**_ day if she did, and there was already enough bullshit crammed into an average workday to give Yuuki a migraine the size of Hokkaido. She threw away the remnants of her breakfast and went back to her room to get dressed. A few moments later, Yuuki came out clad in a light yellow pantsuit with matching heels and a small white purse. Yuuki made sure she had her keys, phone, and her Rhythm Changer and Beat Record. She waved goodbye to Akiko, walked out, and closed the door. Now, most people would have to lock their door behind them, but Yuuki had a much different situation. Somehow, Akiko also had the uncanny ability to lock the door. Yuuki didn't know how she learned to do that, or how she was so good at it, but at least she never worried about keeping the door locked.

* * *

 _ **Hours later, across the city**_

After a lengthy subway ride, Yuuki arrived at her office building. She worked in the accounting department for the Tachibana Trading Corporation. Though she had only worked there for a few months, Yuuki had managed to get herself a decent pay raise from her boss, and was the lead person in charge of the company payroll. Yuuki's job was nice, it was kind of boring, but it paid well and she never had any problems out anything she was presented with. The _**real**_ issue was her coworkers! They were the most insufferable, lazy, procrastinating bastards that the young woman had ever met in her life. They were so irritating! So rage inducing! So moronic! _And_ one of them was walking up to Yuuki right now as she got into the elevator.

"Ah, Sugiyama-san," greeted a nasally male voice. "You're looking quite lovely today!"

Yuuki turned around to see Yusuke Komiya, the resident office nerd. He was a scrawny, 90-pound weakling who always wore clothing that was way too big for him, so it was always baggy. His hair was slick and kind of greasy, and really disgusting. His skin was pale and constantly oily, so his face was ravaged by acne and scars. The huge pair of glasses he had plastered to his face were barely held together by some cheap duct tape. And yet, despite of all those unattractive qualities being merged into one single freak of nature, Yusuke was the biggest pervert in the office to date! His constant barrage of catcalls, terrible pickup lines, and the fact that he couldn't quite keep his hands to himself made Yuuki want to throw him off the building's roof. But then again, she never did anything about it. After all, she was just poor, quiet Yuuki when it came to the workplace.

"You know," Yusuke began as he and Yuuki stepped into the elevator. "If you're afraid of those monsters that attacked Shibuya a little while back, I can protect you."

Yuuki gave an awkward smile, making sure to avoid eye contact with the creep she was standing next to.

"Yeah, trust me. I don't need any help from you."

Yuuki pressed the button the elevator and stood silently as it began its slow ascent to the fifth floor. Yusuke began to get uncomfortably close to Yuuki, and flashed a creepy smile at her.

"Do you mind?" Yuuki complained.

"How could I mind standing next to a babe as hot as you?" Yusuke crudely replied.

Yuuki pushed him away and gave him a disgusted look.

"Leave me alone! Or…"

"Or what? You'll get me fired?" Yusuke asked as he kept invading Yuuki's personal space. Yusuke had pushed Yuuki into the corner of the elevator

Yuuki took a deep breath, and without thinking, she rammed her fist right into the pervert's stomach. All of the air in Yusuke's lungs was forced out, accompanied by a squeaky sound reminiscent of deflating balloons. The weakened man (and I use that term in its **loosest** definition) fell onto the floor as a crumpled heap. Yuuki panicked! She'd never punched someone in the stomach before! The frightened accountant raced from the elevator to her cubicle, and before make sense of it all, she was interrupted by yet another annoying co-worker. Unlike Yusuke, who was an absolute pervert and a misogynist, Aya Shimizu… was a moron. There was no sugarcoating it. Admittedly she was young and was just an office hand that gave people coffee, but she was still one of the most migraine-inducing parts of Yuuki's day. Hell, she wasn't even sure the girl could count to 20! How in the hell she managed to work the coffee maker was one of life's greatest mysteries alongside Stonehenge, the existence of God, and the future of the sequel to the 2017 Power Rangers film. Some things humanity might just never know! Aya was at least pretty to compensate for her unhelpfulness. She was kind of like a house plant: no brain cells, somehow survives despite the fact it should've succumbed to natural causes, but it never fails to brighten up the room. She also had this silly habit of calling everyone in the office pet names.

"Hello, Sugi-chan!" greeted Aya.

Yuuki sighed, "Aya, I've asked you to please call me either Yuuki or Sugiyama-san. Sugi-chan sounds way too childish."

"Okay, Sugi-chan!" was Aya's response. "Did you hear? Someone punched Suke-kun in the elevator, but he's too afraid to say who it is."

Yuuki's eyes widened at the revelation that Yusuke hadn't sung like a canary. Guess he was too afraid that there would be… retribution. Yuuki could only smile, but when she looked back up, she saw a confused Aya staring back at her. She cleared her throat and put more serious expression on her face.

"How _**horrible**_ ," Yuuki lied, feigning concern. "Is he going to be okay?"

Aya shrugged as she handed Yuuki a small cup of coffee and a folder containing several different colored papers.

"What are these?" Yuuki asked as she looked through the documents.

"I don't know, but the boss said to hand them off to you. Something about transferring all the information from the payroll into our new system or something?"

Yuuki violently spit out her coffee and yelled, " **WHAT!** But that's a Herculean task! The new payroll system isn't even fully complete yet! I.T. hasn't worked on it in weeks!"

"Then it looks like you have a lot of work ahead of you, Sugi-chan! I'll leave you to get to it!"

Tachibana, great-grandson of the company's founder, _**never**_ delegated work fairly. Yuuki often wondered what he actually did at the office, since he actually spent most of his day at "work" playing golf on company time. Probably just to ensure that none of his workers could ever actually complain to him personally.

《 _This is going to take forever!_ 》 Yuuki thought. 《 _Today can't get any worse!_ 》

Oh, yes. Yes, it could. And it did.

* * *

 _ **Dischordia, Realm of Chaos**_

The exact opposite of Harmonia, the evil, twisted realm of Dischordia was the coalescence of the very worst parts of humanity. It was composed of every ounce of sorrow, pain, misery, terror, and rage that mankind had to offer. The ground was barren, and the perpetually dark clouds that occupied its hellish sky rained down ash. Bolts of malevolent crimson lightning ripped through the clouds, but instead of the usual cry of booming thunder following it, the sound was more akin to screams of anguish. Soaring high into the blood red sky was the Craneo Malus, the Akudoma's giant skull ship. While the outside of the structure was intimidating, the interior was very beautiful. It was like a grand concert hall. Rows upon rows of black seats were placed left, right, and center, along with two huge sets of balcony seats. Every single seat was occupied by the Metro-Gnomes, who sat quietly as they gave their undivided attention to the large stage in the center of the room. Five thrones occupied the space, with two on the left, two on the right, and one throne that was larger than any of the other four. The biggest throne was very regal, adorned with beautiful jewels, and colored red and gold. On the left, one of the thrones was bright pink and covered hot pink fake fur, and the other was much smaller than all the rest, had a Victorian style, and was made with dark green leather. To the right of that one was a throne made of metallic bones with navy flames coating the armrests. The last throne looked more like a modern art piece than a true throne. It was warped, oddly shaped, and covered in every kind of pattern and color known to man. Hanging above all these thrones was a large, diamond-shaped chandelier made of some kind of crimson gemstone. It pulsated and glowed, like a massive beating heart. Ludvig was confused by the chandelier's presence, since it had been millenia since he had been inside the Craneo Malus, but he definitely didn't remember a chandelier as part of the structure.

"What's with the giant crystal?" he asked. "And more importantly, where's King Sivel?"

"I hate to break it to you, but that crystal _is_ King Sivel," Katty Purry informed him. "When we got sealed away, a lot of his power got drained away. And it turned him into that. It's like some kind of crystal cocoon."

Yankov chimed in as he somehow slid himself into his odd-looking throne, "Yeah. And every single attempt to break it has been useless!"

Megatalico was pissed. He loudly growled as he violently stabbed his sword into the stage's floor. He just couldn't get the memory of his defeat at the hands of the Beatranger out of his mind. If there was one thing that Megatalico was known for, it was his ferocity on the battlefield, and yet, Crescendo's novice squadron of heroes had managed to make him retreat. This. Would. **Not**. Stand.

"The only way to free our master is to complete the full score of the Song of Darkness," Megatalico said. "And the only way to do **that** is to cause as much destruction, pain, and misery in the human world as possible."

"Yes, and that's going to take a lot of time," brought up Katty. "Our forces have been reduced to just the four of us. And even though being in Dischordia has helped to strengthen our powers since we've been back, it's going to be pretty hard to usher in the fall of humanity with nothing but Metro-Gnomes."

While Yankov, Katty, and Megatalico pondered their situation and which course of action to take, Ludvig rolled in an instrument, a green harpsichord with silver etchings all over it. He conjured himself up a small seat and placed his fingers onto the keys. Then he summoned up the music sheet he had first composed when the Akudoma were released.

"Please allow me to provide the three of you with inspirational music to help you think," Ludvig said, beginning to play the harpsichord beautifully. Despite his… l _ess than stellar_ looks, Ludvig was still quite the skilled musician. As he masterfully played the instrument, the Sivel crystal started to glow and crackle with energy. Bolts of lightning reached out and grabbed Ludvig's sheet music, and all the Akudoma generals could do was look on in wonder. The sheet music was ripped apart, but not destroyed. Instead, it was being transformed into something entirely different; something **monstrous**. It grew exponentially, forming a humanoid body. The body appeared to be made of living fireworks, and it was clad in a dress composed of every color of the rainbow. This body also had a head, with a rather beautiful face on it. It had no eyes or nose, rather, it had a pair of multicolored pointy sunglasses and big, puffy lips with red lipstick. The final pièce de résistance to this new being's appearance was a long, flowing skirt made of flames around its waist and silver heels on its feet.

"What is it?" Yankov asked.

"She's pretty!" Katty cried as she ran over to examine the newly created entity. "And so bright!"

The monster gave a formal curtsy to the three generals, and began to speak in a melodious, stern, yet still very feminine, voice.

"Lady Katty, Lord Megatalico, Lord Yankov, and Lord Ludvig," she greeted. "My name is Hanabang, I am an Onigaku, and I was created by our master Sivel's dark power to help you bring humanity to its knees."

Ludvig was squealing with glee, "King Sivel has decided to bless **my** music with his power! Oh, thank you, Sivel-sama! Thank you!"

"This is fantastic!" Megatalico declared. "With Ludvig's songs, we can rebuild our entire army!"

Ludvig looked down at the floor, and quietly replied, "Actually, Megatalico, I can only produce my songs when truly inspired by the fears of humans. I can't just produce them on command."

"What!" bellowed Megatalico has he swung his sword at Ludvig's stumpy neck. Luckily, the monstrous maestro was able to duck his head down into his body, much akin to a turtle, and avoid the attack. He pushed his head back up, and tried to defend himself as best he could while he shook in fear.

"Hey! It's not my fault! I'm an artist, not a machine!"

"I assure you, Lord Megatalico, my powers and particular skill set will be more than enough to cause immense destruction and panic amongst the humans," Hanabang informed her superior. "Nobody outshines me!"

"Then enough talk! Go to the human world and destroy them all! If the Beatrangers get in your way, burn them into cinders," Megatalico commanded. "Take a platoon of Metro-Gnomes with you, too. Hell, I'll even accompany you for back-up!"

"If you're going to go, then so am I!" Yankov proclaimed, vehement. "I've been itching for a real chance to dig my claws into something."

"Meh, I'll stay back this time," Katy purred. "I need Ludvig's help to write a song. I'm sure we'll make… _beautiful_ music together."

"Thank you for the support, but please, leave the Beatrangers to me. I'll make sure this next battle leaves them all buried six feet deep and no one will hear their screams!"

A small crimson rift opened up in front of the Akudoma, courtesy of the Sivel Crystal, and the assembled battalion began to march through it, ready to destroy anyone in their path. Let's hope that our heroes will be able to respond in an organized, calculated, and strategic manner.

* * *

"Ugh!" Yuuki yelled in frustration. "This is impossible! I can barely get any information into this damn computer!"

Yuuki had been struggling for hours for the complete the work given to her, but she'd only encountered issue after issue! Nothing but problems for what seemed like endless hours, but in actuality, it had just been three hours. Nevertheless, Yuuki was miserable. None of the information she'd been given was compatible the software that was supposed to make her job more automated and easier. She had tried talking to the software managers in her department, but they were absolutely no help! She needed a break! Yeah! It was time for lunch anyway, might as well take the time to collect herself and reorganize her thoughts. She got up from her cubicle, walked over to the elevator, pressed the down button, stood next to Kioko, and waited. Wait what, Kioko!? Yuuki jumped back to find Kioko Tamura, in all of her pink pigtailed glory, standing next to her in the corridor; she was wearing her school uniform with knee-high pink socks.

"Ki-Kioko, what are you doing here?" Yuuki demanded to know.

"Yuuki? You work here?! That's great! I'm bored out of my mind!" Kioko whined. "My class is on this super boring field trip, so I was just going to skip out. Good thing I ran into you, I didn't really feel like being alone right now."

"I was actually headed out for lunch. I guess now you're tagging along, right?"

"You had me at 'headed out', but now that you've mentioned food, I am _definitely_ tagging along. Come on, there's actually a sushi place not too far from here. I've heard it's pretty good."

The two young women walked from the building to the adjacent street. After some window shopping, which ended with Kioko almost hatching an elaborate heist plan to get her hands on an exquisite rendition of Edward Elric's coat from Fullmetal Alchemist. Needless to say, Yuuki dragged her away before she got them both stuck with grand larceny charges. They eventually found the place they were looking for, Miyazaki Sushi, and walked into the small building. It was a small restaurant, no bigger than the average café, and appeared to be a self-seating kind of place. Fortunately, the place wasn't very crowded, so the two young ladies quietly sat down at a table. It wasn't long before a waiter came to take their orders. His voice sounded oddly familiar, and when the two women looked up, there was much surprise to be had for everyone.

"Can I take your or- Yuuki?! Kioko?!" screamed the waiter in shock.

" _ **NOBORU**_ **?!** " yelled back the equally surprised pair.

Noboru's face lit up when realized he'd run into his teammates again. Ever since their first fight, Noboru couldn't get the entire ordeal out of his brain! He actually spent over an hour just transforming around his apartment, though that did end up annoying his neighbors, and he had to stop before they asked too many questions. He was wearing a white waiter's uniform with red accents, a red bandana tied around his forehead, and his red Lionheart guitar pick hanging from silver chain on his neck.

"I can't believe you two are here!" Noboru exclaimed. "I've been wanting to meet up, but I couldn't find you guys anywhere!"

"Yeah, well, I've been trying to keep a low profile since the battle," explained Yuuki.

"I'm surprised you didn't find me," said Kioko. "I've been doing idol livestreams for the last few months. And here I thought that I was starting get kind of famous."

"Noboru, I never pegged you for the kind of guy that worked in a restaurant," Yuuki stated.

Noboru sighed and told her, "Well, I have to pay the bills somehow. Every star has to start out somewhere, you know?. And for me, it just had to be as a sushi chef."

"Wait, you're a **chef**?"

"Yeah, but I'm not formally trained. I just kind of… picked it up quickly. They don't let me around the puffer fish though. You know, for legal reasons. Only problem is I hate fish."

"Wait, really? Why?" Kioko asked, confused.

"It all started with a goldfish that looked at me funny…" Noboru began. "But that's neither here nor there. Ever since our last battle, I was sitting there in my apartment just thinking about how cool it'd be if we had some big laser cannon…" But before he could finish his sentence, all three of their Rhythm Changers started loudly blaring:

 _ **AKUDOMA ALERT! AKUDOMA ALERT! AKUDOMA ALERT!**_

The entirety of the restaurant, patrons and staff, turned their attention to the trio of heroes. Without a word, all three of them ran out of the restaurant as fast as possible; Noboru rapidly apologized to his manager on his way out the door. They found themselves hiding in an alley to address whatever was going on.

"What is going on?" Yuuki inquired, frantic.

"Nothing good," Noboru sternly answered. They pulled out their Rhythm Changers, and a mystical hologram of Crescendo appeared above the screens. He was "smoking" his pipe and stroking his beard to try and maintain a sort of wise and sophisticated nature about himself.

"Beatrangers, there's terrible danger nearby! The Akudoma have reappeared and are wreaking havoc! They also seem to have added a new member to their ranks. Be careful."

"By nearby, do you mean…" Yuuki was about to ask, but she was interrupted by the stentorian sound of an explosion. "Nevermind."

The Beatrangers ran out from the alley, and managed to traverse their way through the crowd of frightened people to find Megatalico, Yankov, Hanabang, and a swarm of Metro-Gnomes attacking buildings and any innocent people unfortunate enough to be in their way. One Metro-Gnome was preparing to attack a boy who had fallen onto the ground, but Noboru ran in and dropkicked the thing away. Yuuki and Kioko rushed over and helped the kid get himself up and run to safety. The two Akudoma generals and Hanabang turned their focus to the Beatrangers. Noboru got himself up off the ground and stood alongside Yuuki and Kioko as they faced down the enemy.

"My, my, Beatrangers. You do respond quickly. If you're in such a hurry to die, I'll be happy to oblige you," Megatalico menaced, pointing his sword at them.

Kioko remained unwavered by the villain's threat, "We'll see how well you talk shit when I turn that skull of yours into a Halloween decoration. Or maybe a cheap necklace!"

"Yeah!" exclaimed Yuuki. "We're not going to let you hurt anybody else!"

"Let's show these thugs the power of music!" yelled Noboru.

Noboru stepped forward and pulled out his Rhythm Changer and Beat Record. The others followed suit, and the trio readied themselves to transform. They inserted their Beat Records, pressed the play button, and thrust their arms back outward.

"Record Set!"

"Queue up! Rock and Roll!"

"Techno!"

"Pop!"

"Ready to Rock?"

 _ **BEATRANGER, ROCK ON!**_

With a circular motion, the transformation was initiated as the Rhythm Changers were raised to the sky. A bright light overtook the landscape, and the hallmark beats of rock, pop, and techno music could be heard blaring. Where once stood three ordinary and powerless humans, now stood red, yellow, and pink warriors empowered by the essence of music. The freshly transformed warriors took their poses and readied themselves to do battle. While Noboru and Kioko were more than ready, Yuuki still had butterflies in her stomach. She'd never fought before becoming a Beatranger, but she knew she'd have to learn sooner or later. Guess the universe decided sooner was better. Megatalico snapped his fingers, triggering the Metro-Gnomes to go on the offensive. Kioko backflipped to give herself a lot more room to work with. She kicked down a few Metro-Gnomes, then jumped up, wrapped her legs around the neck of yet another enemy then used the force to slam down the Metro-Gnome's head onto the asphalt. Once again, Noboru was taking on Megatalico with his Riff Slasher, and this time the battle was _**clearly**_ favoring Megatalico. Noboru tried his best to defend himself, and even landed some solid hits with his blade, but Megatalico's raw power was just too much to fend off. Noboru had fight smarter, if he couldn't fight harder. So, Noboru backed up, ran forward, then jumped up. While airborne, he flipped forward and unholstered his Clef Buster and rained down laser fire onto the general below him. Megatalico was briefly stunned by the assault, which allowed Noboru to run in and slash him repeatedly. Yuuki was not as lucky as her teammates, however. She was having to fight both Yankov and Hanabang at the same time, so it wasn't exactly a cake walk. Yankov's weapon was a large glove with jagged knives on the fingers, and Yuuki was spending much of her time trying to avoid being hit by the brute's repeated attempts to slash at her.

"Stand still, damn you!" Yankov exclaimed, annoyed by all of his failed attempts to hit the yellow warrior. Yuuki was repeatedly trying to use her Rhythm Changer to summon up her own personal weapon, but nothing was happening! Yankov managed to trip her up, and once Yuuki was on the ground, he was about to use his claws to attack the helpless heroine, but then...

 _ **Rock on, Idol Slicer!**_

Kioko summoned up her weapon, which at first glance appeared to be a pink microphone with a golden heart-shaped casing on top and a golden star attached to the bottom of the microphone. Kioko slid the button on the front of the weapon to the "ON" position. This revealed the object's true nature. A long, curved blade, similar to that of scythe, sprang out from the side of the microphone, and the bottom part of the microphone dropped to the ground, revealing a lengthy chain inside of it. She tossed the weighted end of the kusarigama around Yankov's raised arm, then used all of her strength to hold back the behemoth limb. This gave Yuuki enough time to fumble for her Clef Buster, then fired a nonstop volley of energy bursts right into Yankov's chest. The Akudoma general was forced backwards by the attack, which allowed Kioko to run in and slash him with the bladed end of her Idol Slicer. She helped Yuuki up from the ground and Noboru soon joined them.

"You okay, Yuuki?" asked Kioko.

"I'm fine."

"But you won't be for long!" yelled Hanabang. She fired blasts of neon colored plasma at the team. The trio scrambled away from the resulting explosion, so Hanabang simply started to charge up new energy bolts. The three Beatrangers regrouped and charged in with full force.

* * *

" **WHAT! THE! HELL!?**."

Gunmetal Black, Japan's biggest rising metal artist, was, in reality, Taeko Kuromichi, Rhythm Black. And currently, he was on the set for his newest music video: "Tears of Hellfire". However, what Taeko wasn't aware of was that his manager had completely thrown out his ideas and replaced them! The entire point of the video was to convey the Edenic Fall from the perspective of a fallen Lucifer. But instead of that, what he was given was some random woman in a scantily clad demon outfit with badly made bat wings on her back. His manager, a loud, crude American named Barry Anderson, was busy flapping his mouth on his cellphone before Taeko, clad in his full costume and using his voice modulator, grabbed him by the shoulder to get his attention.

"Just what do you think you're doing?!"

Barry hung up his phone call and smooved down the few hairs that remained on the overweight man's middle-aged head. He disregarded Taeko's question and simply his arm over his shoulder.

"Gunmetal, baby, listen. I heard your ideas for the video and while they were very neat, you gotta realize: sexiness sells!"

Taeko pushed the man off of him, "Bullshit! _Music_ sells! My fans don't listen to my music or watch my videos to see me parade around with some half-naked chick! There's other kinds of things you can watch for that! Someone get her out of here!"

Taeko's security team grabbed the poor woman and escorted her off of the set. Taeko was fuming underneath his costume, and he was ready to tell his manager that he had had enough. This executive meddling was getting on his last nerve!

"You've got a lot of nerve, kid!"

"No, Barry, _**you've**_ got a lot of nerve! I took you as my manager because you promised me you'd give an audience to the message of my music! Now you're just using me! You've been messing up my image for a while now, and I'm sick of it!"

"Newsflash, kid! This is **showbusiness!** Everybody uses everybody! That's the thing with you 'artistic' types. All you ever give a damn about is your precious 'message'. I'll go ahead and tell right now that whatever artistic idea you have rattling up in that thick skull of yours was probably already thought up by some old white guy doing LSD out of the back of his Volkswagen! Plus I **made** your image! You were nothing without me! And you'll go back to being nothing without me."

Taeko's vision went red with wrath. He reared his fist back and knocked that pompous asshat right on the floor; he also knocked out some of the guy's teeth in the process. The older man was so taken aback by the assault that he couldn't even bring himself to get back up.

"Don't you **dare** think you know a damn thing about me or my message! I'm down being the cash cow for your sorry fat ass! Our partnership is over, and if you ever tell anybody who I really am, I. Will. **End**. You. I hope we're clear."

Taeko walked off and everyone around him was in absolute shock. The silence was thick enough to cut through with a chainsaw, but nobody was rushing to Barry's aid nor were they trying to follow a pissed off Gunmetal Black after what he'd just done. Taeko had walked off to his dressing room, and quickly changed into a different outfit. He changed into a black leather jacket, denim jeans, a violet shirt, black high tops, and put on a bracelet with a silver scorpion placed on it. He forced his costume back into the bag, but then he noticed the sound of his Rhythm Changer coming from inside the bag.

 _ **AKUDOMA ALERT! AKUDOMA ALERT! AKUDOMA ALERT!**_

"Shit!" he muttered to himself as he picked up the device. He noticed on the screen that there was map of the city. A black dot labeled "ME" was the center focus, but there were more dots located north of that. Three of the dots, red, yellow, and pink, were grouped together next to a larger crimson circle. To the east of those dots was a singular blue dot that wasn't moving. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on. Taeko grabbed the motorcycle helmet that was sitting on a nearby chair, put it on, and charged out the door. He located his black and gold Suzuki Hayabusa and revved it up, peeling out of the parking lot at top speed. He cruised through the streets with ease as he sped down the streets as fast he could. He eventually found his location, the Minamoto Apartments. He parked, hopped off his bike and pulled out his Rhythm Changer.

"Euterpe, Crescendo? Are either of you there?"

Euterpe's irritated voice screamed from the changer, "Taeko? **Where are you!?** Yuuki, Noboru, and Kioko are battling the Akudoma's newest soldier in the city! They're holding their own, but all five of you need to be together to win!"

"Which is why I'm looking for Toshiro," Taeko told her. "Any way you can determine which apartment is his? It'll take forever to search all these!"

"I don't know why he didn't respond to the alert already. Let me see… I've got it! Apartment 1945!"

Taeko ran until he found the apartments under the 1900 numbers, and tracked down Apartment 1945. He strongly rapped at the door, but when he received no answer, he reach into his pocket and pulled out a bobby pin. He bent the pin at the proper angle, then inserted it into the tumbler, taking great care to make sure no one saw him. One turn to the left, then to the right, then back to the left, and…

 _ **CLICK!**_

Taeko was extremely grateful he kept up with maintaining his lockpicking skills since becoming Gunmetal Black. Skills like that always came in handy. Taeko quietly crept into the apartment. The place was nice, if a bit small, but that _was_ the Japanese living style after all. There was a couch, a decent sized TV playing some kind of game show, and a kitchen. Taeko felt kind of… seedy for being in someone's apartment without their permission. Sure, he'd broken into a couple of stores after hours, but he was never one for stealing people's personal belongings. Taeko looked around for a while, and eventually noticed there were a few photos sitting on a shelf. Against his better judgement, he walked over to them to find one photo of Toshiro, a younger Toshiro in navy tuxedo, and a pregnant woman in a wedding dress. They were staring lovingly into each other's eyes and were inches away locking lips. The next photo was of a slightly older Toshiro holding a newborn baby wrapped up in a pink blanket. A massive grin was placed across his face. Taeko had never seen anyone so happy. But Toshiro seemed to live alone… what happened? Before Taeko could do anything else however, he was tackled from behind. He and his assailant tussled for a while, but the fight was soon rendered entirely pointless once they started to talk.

"You thought you could steal from me? Nice try, buddy! I wrote the book on theft, so there's no way you're getting anything from me except a fist in the mouth!"

"Damn it, Toshiro! Get the hell off me! It's me, Taeko! Your _**teammate!**_ "

The struggle ended with Toshiro on top of Taeko, ready to punch his fellow Beatranger in the face. And as if this entire ordeal hadn't been weird enough, Toshiro was wearing nothing but a pair of light blue boxers. And he was really damn hairy. _Ewww!_

"What the hell are you doing in my apartment?" Toshiro demanded to know.

Taeko stood and shook himself off, "I came to get your lazy ass! Noboru, Yuuki, and Kioko are busy fighting for their lives right now! Or did you forget that whole 'tasked with saving the world' thing?"

Toshiro's eyes widened as he ran back to his bedroom, then ran back now holding his Rhythm Changer which displayed the same map as Taeko's.

"I was asleep and I put this thing in a drawer! It'd been over a week, so I just tossed it somewhere!"

"You know, for being the oldest member of our team, you sure are irresponsible," Taeko told.

"Says the guy that break into people's houses!" was Toshiro's rebuttal.

"Says the guy that, and I quote, ' _ **wrote the book on theft**_ '," Taeko fired back. There were a few moments of silence between the two.

"I hate you."

"Go put on some clothes!"

After quickly dressing himself in a light blue, short sleeved polo shirt, some white shorts, white sneakers, and a white fedora, Toshiro and Taeko were racing to make it to the site of the battle. Toshiro was delegated to the passenger position, which he _really_ wasn't keen on, so was he giving Taeko an earful. And a headache.

"Did you really have to put me in the bitch seat?" he asked.

"Well, you obviously weren't going to drive **my** bike! So, it's either bitch seat or nothing," Taeko said to him, rounding a corner. "So, what's your story? I saw those pictures back at your apartment. You have a wife and daughter?"

"It's… complicated."

"Try me."

"Back when I was young, and dumber than a bag of red bean paste, I used to be part of a crew. We called ourselves the Wolfpack. We pulled off all kinds of heists. We thought we were invincible, but then I met Sakura. We fell deeply in love. We were so happy. Then she got pregnant, and we got married. I was more than ready to give up the criminal lifestyle for good, but my dumbass 'friends' convinced me to do just one last job. But it was bullshit! We got caught and they sold my ass out to the cops to save their own skins! 10 years of my daughter's life missed! The woman I loved can't even stand to **look** at me anymore!"

Taeko stopped the bike just a few yards from where the others were fighting. He took off his helmet, and turned around to see Toshiro with tears of rage in his eyes and his fist clenched in pure anger.

"Are you-"

Toshiro cut him off, "I'm pissed off, heartbroken, and I **desperately** want to hit something. Let's go kick some ass."

Taeko nodded. The two pulled out their Rhythm Changers, and began to transform as they ran toward the battlefield. They inserted their Beat Records, which initiated the activation of their powers.

"Queue up! The Blues!"

"Queue up! Heavy Metal!"

"Ready to Rock?"

 _ **BEATRANGER, ROCK ON!**_

The sounds of heavy metal and smooth blues rang out, along with bright beams of purple and blue light, and the two were morphed into their Beatranger suits.

* * *

Meanwhile, Noboru was slammed into a nearby wall by a fiery stream of explosive green plasma. Kioko and Yuuki were doing their best to dodge the constant fire of the plasma bursts coming from Hanabang's fingertips. Kioko decided to go on the offensive, so she used the bladed part of her weapon to slash Hanabang from a distance, then used the other end to trip her up. The Onigaku was knocked flat on her back as Rhythm Black and Rhythm Blue made their presence known by running onto the scene. The newly assembled team ran to go help Noboru, who was shaken up, but wasn't really any worse for wear despite hitting a brick wall with enough force to leave a outline of his body into it! Damn, these powers rocked!

"Glad you two finally decided to join us," Noboru teased to his freshly arriving teammates.

"Hey, I was busy," lied Toshiro.

"You were asleep!" interjected Taeko.

"Who asked you?!"

Kioko smacked both of them upside their helmets, which shut them both up pretty fast. She scolded them on their idiotic behavior, and while the team was distracted, Hanabang was taking the opportunity to pick herself back up.

"Both of you are morons! We're supposed be a team of superheroes, and you're spending your time **sleeping**!?"

"Oh, the blame is all on me for sleeping? Forgive me for being **human**!" Toshiro asked in his own defense "Why's no one asked Taeko what the hell _he_ was up to? Come on, Noboru, back me up!"

Noboru nodded slowly, "He's got a point. So just what _were_ you doing, Taeko?"

"Yeah, Mr. Metalhead," Kioko added. "Where were you?"

The black Beatranger just looked at the ground. On one hand, he wanted to tell his teammates who he was, but on the other, he barely knew any of them. If they found out his identity, they could leak it to every tabloid in the country and make themselves rich! Taeko's personal life would be destroyed; he'd never have a moment of peace. Sure, Taeko had no reason to believe any of his fellow Beatrangers would actually do any of that to him, but he also didn't have a good enough reason to not be cautious.

"I was… busy. I want to explain…"

"But?" Kioko asked, folding her arms and raising an eyebrow underneath the helmet.

"Guys?" Yuuki interjected.

"Look, it's nothing personal," Taeko told her. "I'm entitled my privacy, aren't I?"

"Sure. If you want to look like a liar," the pink Beatranger replied.

"Excuse me?" Taeko responded.

"Guys!" Yuuki cried.

Kioko and Taeko were inches apart now, almost touching helmets. If you were to look closely enough at the space between them, you'd swear there was a small bolt of lightning surging between the two. Even though Taeko was a full foot taller than Kioko, that didn't deter the teenage otaku from picking a fight with the giant. The bigger they are, the harder they fall after all.

"There's something suspicious about you. I knew the moment I met you that you weren't being completely honest."

"You're being pretty presumptuous, don't you think?"

"What I _think_ , Taeko, is that you're just like every other metalhead in Japan. You're probably just following some fad to seem cool, and think being a huge Gunmetal Black fan will somehow make you be any better than you are already."

"What makes you even think I like Gunmetal Black?"

"Oh, so, what? You're a _hipster_ too? Let me guess, you 'liked him before he was cool', or something like that? It's all the same with you people, you have no idea what good music is!"

Yuuki was desperately trying to garner her teammates' attention, butsadly, Rhythm Yellow's attempts at a warning came much too late. A mammoth sphere of hot pink, neon green, and icy blue energy came down on top of the entire team and exploded. It was like getting blown up by the worst parts of the 1980s. They were sent flying into the air, and were met only by the hard, unforgiving embrace of the ground when they came back to earth. All five Beatrangers were rendered helpless by the attack, which left them to the mercy of Hanabang. She walked over the Beatrangers like some gaudy angel of death, until she came Noboru and Kioko. Her hands glowed with energy as she reached into the two Beatrangers' chest and pulled out a large red spark and a large pink spark respectively. They were both forced to unmorph from their suits, and remained motionless on the ground. Yuuki tried to crawl over to defend her friends, but she was way too weak to do anything substantial. Hanabang stomped on the yellow warrior's back, which caused Yuuki to howl in pain.

"You can't even help yourself, let alone your teammates," Hanabang mocked as she knelt down, placed a hand under Yuuki's chin, and tilted her head up. "It's such a shame. The spark in you would be so **amazing** … if only you could realize it. Too bad you never will! No one outshines Hanabang!"

Hanabang was about finish Yuuki off, but Toshiro mustered up enough strength to grab his Clef Buster, and fired a bunch of shots into Hanabang's back. The monster was blown away, and Taeko managed to gather enough strength to get up and grab Yuuki. He pulled out his Rhythm Changer and screamed into it.

"Get us out of here!"

The entire squadron was then teleported away to Harmonia. Hanabang was angry that she didn't get to finish off Yuuki, but Rhythm Red's and Rhythm Pink's sparks of life were than enough to make up for that little slip up. Besides, she needed to start the next phase of her plan. She was to make sure that everyone in Japan would witness her, the brightly shining demonic star of the Akudoma, burn bright in the heavens! Who needs five stars when you have one that's already more beautiful than any other? She too disappeared by combusting into an array of dazzling fireworks.

* * *

Toshiro, Yuuki, and Taeko were frantically pacing around the Tree of Melodies. They were stricken with frightening grief while Crescendo examined the still lifeless bodies of Noboru and Kioko. He waved a hand covered in purple energy over the two, then he looked at his palm. The grave look on his face was all the others needed to see to understand the severity of the situation. Yuuki's eyes were red and puffy from crying. Sure, she hadn't known Kioko or Noboru for very long, but no one that young deserves to die! Crescendo walked over to the remaining Beatrangers, and the team prepared for the worst.

"A-are they-" Yuuki managed to stutter out in between bursts of streaming tears. Crescendo raised a hand to the young woman's face and wiped away her tears, and shook his head.

"No, they're not **dead**. However, they are in a state between life and death. Think of it as a... catatonic state for the soul. The soul is not a singular entity, but rather, a gestalt manifestation of various different parts. This monster has removed their 'sparks of life', and it's turned them into this."

"Is there any way to save them?" asked Toshiro.

Crescendo nodded, "If you defeat the Onigaku, then you can return their sparks and restore them."

"And if we can't?" chimed in Taeko.

"Then they remain like this forever."

The entire room was quiet for a moment, but eventually Euterpe broke the deafening silence by fluttering in and landing on Crescendo's shoulder.

" _Ahem_! Listen, I understand you all are concerned for Noboru and Kioko, and I am as well. But worrying isn't going to do anybody any good. The Akudoma have retreated for now, so the only thing we can do is stay alert for the next attack."

Taeko and Toshiro nodded, but Yuuki remained still and silent. Yuuki walked over to Kioko's body to swipe part of the girl's pink hair out of her eyes. One of Yuuki's tears landed on Kioko's cheek, and Yuuki desperately wished for a fairy tale miracle, for Kioko to be healed by some kind of magic. Alas, that just didn't happen.

"This is my fault," she said.

"No, it's not!" refuted Taeko. "I was the one that was hellbent on arguing with Kioko. If I wasn't distracting everyone…"

"Blaming yourself isn't going to save anyone, Taeko," Crescendo told him, placing a hand on the musician's shoulder. "And though I can't tell you what to do with your secrets, or who you should trust them to, but I can tell you that anything you hide from your allies will eventually come to the light, either by choice or by force. Choose whichever is better for you."

Taeko walked away in shame before using his Rhythm Changer to teleport away. Toshiro followed suit and left as well, but Yuuki stayed behind. Partially because she didn't want to leave her teammates' side, but also because she had questions.

"Crescendo, that monster told me that I wasn't 'realizing my spark'. What did she mean?"

"What you must understand, Yuuki, is that the spark of life is like its own living creature. It needs to be nourished, and it can only do so by a person accomplishing their goals and reaching their potential. Yuuki, you are very bright, but you're largely afraid. Not only of the battles with the Akudoma, but you're afraid of conflict. And most importantly, you're afraid to be _yourself_. There's a side to you that you won't let free Yuuki, and if you don't… your powers will fail you. It's why you couldn't summon your weapon during the battle. You don't believe in the music inside you."

Yuuki was speechless. Was it really possible that she was standing in her own way? That she wasn't realizing everything she could be? How?! She'd graduated university with honors, landed a well paying position in a respectable company, and done everything she could've ever hoped for! Yuuki needed answers… and even if Crescendo was a wise old sage, he didn't have what she needed right now. Yuuki teleported away, but she had work to do. Two people's lives were at stake, so if finding herself was what Yuuki needed to do to save them, then she knew exactly who she needed to see.

* * *

 _ **Later that night…**_

Yuuki had to admit it was a familiar feeling. That kind… _jolt_ that shot up your spine that gave away to an aura of excitement and energy. It was an exhilarating sensation, and it was something that Yuuki lived for. Music was the only thing that kept her sane anymore, but with more and more work being piled onto her, she rarely had enough time to do what she really loved anymore. Thankfully, Prism Flash was always there for her. The place was a bit of a hidden gem in the club scene, but Yuuki liked it that way. It kept the place from being ravaged by the, let's call them, "unsatisfactory" patrons that tend to ruin the party for everyone. However, this was less of a place that was significant to _Yuuki_ , and more of a place of worship for Solar Flare. Solar Flare was also a hidden gem, in the DJ world at least, and Yuuki would definitely describe her as her better half. When clad in her neon rainbow wig, highlighter yellow sleeveless hoodie, leather fingerless gloves, torn stonewashed jeans, and rainbow glasses/sunglasses, Yuuki Sugiyama became a DJ of the highest calibre. Solar Flare walked up to the door and walked inside. The loud pulsing rhythm of techno music was resounding throughout the building as people were busy mingling at the bar and getting down on the electronic, multicolored dance floor. However, before she could step into the club proper, Yuuki was stopped by a large, buff, bald dude in a black shirt with a clipboard in his hands.

"Name," the bouncer ordered.

"Bruno, baby, come on! You know me! I'm the best, the brightest!"

The guy looked up from his clipboard and saw Solar Flare standing there with a big smile on her face. They instantly hugged and gave each other fist bumps, and after a bit of catching up, Bruno did after some inquisitive queries for the absentee DJ. She hadn't been around the club for a while, at least 3 weeks, so seeing her just randomly arrive out of nowhere was a pleasantly unexpected occurrence.

"What does bring you 'round these parts, Flare? You've been MIA for almost a month, so what gives? Have you come to save us from the new DJ that Boss-Man hired? _**Please**_ tell me you are! This dude is bland as hell compared to you!"

The brightly colored DJ shook her head, much to Bruno's dismay, and explained that she was on a much different mission than he thought.

"Sorry, big guy, but I've got a lot of problems going on right now. And, as crazy as it sounds, I'm pretty sure that Ozzie's the only one that can help me right now. You know where he is?"

"Yeah, he's in his office. Last I checked, he was partying it up with two… _entertainers_ , if you get my drift, and drinking some weird imported alcohol that he said was from space or something."

"Space?"

"It was a gift from some friend of his. A dude named Captain… Stupendous, or something like that. He was pretty cool. Had a badass red coat, almost shot a guy, and he could drink like no tomorrow."

Bruno opened up the rope to the club, which Solar promptly walked through. The first thing most new patrons of Prism Flash neglect is its size. Due to the outside door being damn near invisible in its inconspicuousness, nobody would expect the club to be as big as it actually is. However, those quick judgements were quickly put to bed once stepping inside; Prism Flash was huge! Not only was there a spacious dance floor, a VIP area, and an open bar, but there were also multiple areas in the back for private parties, as well as a more unique feature: a museum. Now this wasn't just some run of the mill history museum, mind you. But it was an intricately selected, professional crafted, and well-designed display that detailed the entire history of every team of Super Sentai ever. There were replicas of weapons, like the Ryugekiken, DekaMaster's D-Sword Vega, and the Zandar Thunder, and costumes, like MagiMother, ToQ 6gou, and Akaranger to name a few. Behind the museum section was Ozzie's office, so Solar Flare simply made her way past the groups of intoxicated partiers with relative ease. One guy tried to get her way, some hotshot in a leather jacket, but she just pushed him out of the way.

"Hey, I'm Ian, and-"

"I don't care! Move it!"

Ian was knocked aside by the smaller woman, who was much stronger than she looked, and he ended up losing his footing. This caused him to fall backwards onto the other side of the bar counter, which in turn made a bunch of open bottles of alcohol spill onto him. The arrogant young man was now soaked in booze and smelled like a liquor factory. This was definitely **not** his idea of an ideal night.

" _Oh my_! I must be losing my touch or something!"

* * *

Solar Flare finally made her way to Ozzie's office. She could hear giggling coming from behind the door, so, to avoid the risk of being scarred for life, she loudly knocked on the door. The sounds of scurrying and shifting could be heard, as well as the sound of a loud smack followed by a short scream accompanied by giggling. Suddenly, two women in skimpy Sentai themed attire and heels ran out the office. Solar would've said something, but sometimes, there are just no words. She walked into the office to find Ozzie sitting comfortable in a red swivel chair behind his expensive mahogany desk. Now, while this Ozzie was not Ozzy Osbourne, he was pretty damn close as far as looks were concerned. The hair, face, even the glasses! The only real differences were that Ozzie: spelled his name differently, was more into electronic music than heavy metal, was a good 19 years younger than Osbourne, and his accent was more of a mix between British and Kiwi (New Zealand).

"Well, well, well. The prodigal daughter returns. Hell, I thought you were dead love! Pull up a chair!" Ozzy said, gesturing Solar to sit down. She grabbed an adjacent chair, and sat down. "Now, tell ol' Ozzie what he can do for ya!"

"Okay. The situation's complicated, but the short version is that I have some friends that need my help, and I'm… damn it! I'm **scared** , Ozzie! I'm so freaking terrified! But… my friends need. Hell, it almost feels like the whole world's counting on me. I want to give it my all, which I thought I was already giving, but I don't know what my all even is…"

Ozzie was slightly taken aback by the abruptness of her question, but the query certainly piqued his interest. The club owner sat straight up in his chair and removed is glasses before offering his response.

"That is… one helluva problem, love. You're lucky you've got me, you know?"

"I've been going through a lot, Oz. I've always tried to keep my music and my life separate, but things aren't turning out that way. I always just used music as a stress reliever, a way to have fun, and get away from my boring-ass life. I feel like a pushover everywhere I go and in anything I do…"

"Except for here, right?" Ozzie interjected. "Here you feel like queen of the world. Here people respect you, and appreciate you for what you do." Yuuki nodded. "Listen, Flare, I don't have any kids, alright? I hate the little buggers, honestly. But, you've been kind of like a daughter to me in a few ways. So, I'll give you some good ol' fashioned Ozzie advice. You see, your issue is that you're focusing on the wrong things. I can tell that you don't handle conflict well, hell, neither do I, so you need focus on your strengths."

"My strengths? Well, I don't have any…"

Ozzie stood up from behind his desk, then got all up in Solar Flare's face. She held her breath as he placed a hand on either side of her face and stared into her eyes.

"We're not doing that, love," Ozzie told her with a stern look on his face. "This is not a pity party, so cut that BS out right now. I've known you for a while now, Flare. You're not one to wallow in self-pity. You want to know some of your bloody strengths?! Get out!"

"What?"

"You heard me. Get out of here! Get your sorry ass up on that stage, kick that mediocre excuse for a disk jockey I hired out of the way, and then maybe you'll see what I'm talking about!"

Ozzie grabbed Solar Flare up out of her chair and shoved her back out the door of his office. Though hesitant, the young DJ didn't come to the club to just to ignore the advice given to her. So, she walked right on up to the DJ, and after taking a _**deep**_ breath…

"Sorry about this," she apologized. Then she grabbed the DJ by his shirt and tossed him into the crowd below. Thankfully, there was a trio of drunk dudes to break his fall. Solar Flare stopped the music, and the whole club stopped along with it. She grabbed a duffel bag located underneath the table. Inside were cables, a laptop, a set of turntables, and a pair of her favorite Firefly brand headphones. It didn't take her long to assemble everything together, and she was luckily still patched into the building's bluetooth sound network, and its lighting. Instantly, everything went dark, and she could hear the confusion of people in the crowd. She looked through her collection of songs, until she found it. The one. All she need to do was boost the gain, deepen the bass, and… showtime!

 _Falling too fast to prepare for this_

 _Tripping in the world could be dangerous_

 _Everybody circling, it's vulturous_

 _Negative, nepotist_

A cascade of rainbow lights rained down from the ceiling and flowed onto the crowded below. The dance floor was also being affected, with the panels on the floor lighting up in tandem with the lyrics. The other DJ hadn't know about that feature, but Solar was all too familiar with the system's bells and whistles. The patrons were clearly loving it; they were dancing and shouting out as the colorful lights above them started to flash.

 _Everybody waiting for the fall of man_

 _Everybody praying for the end of times_

 _Everybody hoping they could be the one_

 _I was born to run, I was born for this_

 _Whip, whip_

 _Run me like a racehorse_

 _Pull me like a ripcord_

 _Break me down and build me up_

 _I wanna be the slip, slip_

 _Word upon your lip, lip_

 _Letter that you rip, rip_

 _Break me down and build me up_

The beat slowed down didn't last long though, as it came back slowly at first, but the sound kept on getting louder and louder, building more and more. It all culminated into a beat drop so beautiful that it almost tore the sky asunder. The lights changed accordingly by becoming rapid in their flashing and shifting of color.

 _Whatever it takes_

 _'Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins_

 _I do whatever it takes_

 _'Cause I love how it feels when I break the chains_

 _Whatever it takes_

 _You take me to the top I'm ready for_

 _Whatever it takes_

 _'Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins_

 _I do what it takes_

Solar was lost in the music, but she did look up to see various smiles on people's faces as they were having the time of their life. It made her feel great to know that she was bring so much happiness to people. There was even a guy and a girl who were dancing together, and staring longingly into one another's eyes. Solar couldn't help but be a hopeless romantic, and wondered if she had maybe resulted in helping spark the fires of love between the two. Was this the power of music? To change the fate of somebody just by listening to it? If she could get two people to realize their love for each of just by being a DJ… what could she do as a hero? Ozzie walked to her as the music continued to play on.

"Feel better?"

"I do. Ozzie, I don't know what you've been smoking-"

"That makes two of us."

Unexpectedly, Solar grabbed the older man by the shoulders and pulled him into a tight embrace. Ozzie was surprised, he had never been the "touchy-feely" type, but he was happy to make an exception just this once. He hugged her back, and Ozzie could almost swear he saw the young lady actually glow for a second or two. Man, he really needed to lay off the space hooch!

"But thanks, Oz. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to head home. I got some friends to save!"

Ozzie was going to ask what she meant by "save", but it was none of his business, so he decided against it. Right now he had bigger concerns like getting some Beatranger memorabilia for his Sentai Museum display. If only he knew one, maybe they'd give him some.

"Heh, meeting a Beatranger," he chuckled to himself. "Get real, Ozzie."

* * *

 _ **The next day…**_

"Hanabang! Ludvig! Are they ready yet?" Megatalico barked. Ludvig scampered over with two devices in his hands. They were translucent red dodecahedrons, and each one contained either Noboru's or Kioko's spark. The red casing around the spiritual energy was carved with runes and symbols that glowed with a pulsating crimson hue. Hanabang had a wicked grin stretched across her lips as she eyed the objects with a morbid joy.

Ludvig held one of the objects with a respectful fear as he explained their functions, "These soul bombs are extremely volatile, so we're going to need to be careful in placing them. One wrong move and well, big boom."

"Yes, they're delightfully destructive! And with only three Beatrangers left to worry about, I don't think we'll have much trouble. We're going to plant these at the base of the Tokyo Tower. The bombs on a five minute timer, so all we have to do is keep those meddlesome heroes away, and victory is ours."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" commanded Megatalico. Leading a legion of Metro-Gnomes, Megatalico, Yankov, and Hanabang stepped through a crismon space-time rift. They reappeared right in front of Tokyo Tower, and frightened the citizens with their sudden arrival. People started to scatter as the Akudoma pushed their way through the crowd. They entered arrived at the base of the gigantic monument, then Hanabang and Megatalico jumped on top of the FootTown building located the base of the tower while Yankov led the Metro-Gnomes on the ground. Hanabang secured the two explosives on opposite legs, then she used her powers to jumpstart their activation. The both bombs started to slowly flash red, and the flashing only increased in speed the more time passed. Meanwhile in Harmonia, Crescendo and Euterpe were watching the events unfold through the Eye of the Storm, and they both knew the situation was quickly escalating from bad to worse.

"Call in the Beatrangers," ordered Crescendo.

"But Kioko and Noboru are still out of commission. And I don't know if the others can handle it by themsel-" Euterpe couldn't finish her complaints as Crescendo raised a hand to indicate silence.

"If they couldn't handle themselves, they wouldn't have been chosen. Now summon them."

Toshiro, Yuuki, and Taeko were all summoned into the Tree of Melodies and debriefed on the situation. Taeko assessed the information, and immediately suggested that they come up with a plan. Toshiro and Yuuki agreed as they all knew that they couldn't allow any more casualties while in battle, so what could they do?

"I'm open to all suggestions," Taeko said. "But we should hurry. Those bombs are on a timer, and we've got to disarm them as well as protect civilians."

Yuuki pondered the situation for a moment, and quickly came up with a plan that made enough sense. And if they managed to pull it off, they'd be able to disable the bombs and save their friends, but it would have to be done without any kind of hitches or mistakes.

"You want us to **what!?** " Toshiro screamed.

"I'd appreciate you if lowered the volume, Toshiro! Look I know that I'm not the team's de facto leader or anything, but you've got to trust me! I'll hold onto your Rhythm Changers while you guys distract them by pretending to surrender."

Taeko caught on instantly, "And while we do that, you'll head up top and disarm the bombs."

Yuuki nodded, "Exactly. You're pretty smart for a guy with slits in his eyebrows."

"And that's a pretty bold plan coming from the quiet girl who's afraid of her own shadow." Toshiro retorted. Yuuki rolled her eyes as she playful punched him in arm. They had their parts to play, so now it was time for they to enact their plan. Yuuki transformed and was teleport behind the tower, away from all the action, while Toshiro and Taeko were sent right onto the front lines. The two of them ran out with their hands up and yelled loudly in order to attract as much attention to themselves as possible.

"Akudoma! Down here!" screamed Taeko.

"Hey, you ugly bastards! What, do your ears not work!?" Toshiro yelled in addition.

Megatalico and Hanabang could hear the two Beatrangers hurling insults from down below, so they leapt down from the tower to see what the deal was. Once they landed, Toshiro and Taeko feel silent. There was an obvious air of tension around the four of them, so Taeko did his best to try and… break the ice?

"Lord Megatalico, my friend and I have come to you with a most gracious offer," Taeko said, doing his best to put on a posh accent and come off as genuine. Toshiro was lost for a second, but he soon caught up with the program once Taeko discreetly elbowed him in the side.

"Yes, my lord," Toshiro declared as he knelt down to the ground. "After what you did to our teammates, we've decided that it's better to be in the devil's right hand than in his path. We surrender! Please! Have mercy upon us!"

Taeko also knelt, and piled on the schmoozing ever further by grabbing Megatalico's right hand.

"We pledge our allegiance to you! We even gave up our powers!"

Yuuki was looking down at the entire spectacle from the top of the FootTown building as made her way towards the bombs. She did have to admit that both Taeko and Toshiro were some damn good actors. Megatalico was loving every second of the brown-nosing, but Hanabang wasn't so easily won over by the sudden defection of two Beatrangers. Especially when there's another member of the team that was unaccounted for. She swiftly yanked Toshiro up by his shirt collar and command her to tell him where Yuuki was. As she did so, she took the time to check Toshiro for his Rhythm Changer while Megatalico did the same to Taeko. They were both clean, but that did nothing to quell Hanabang's supscions.

"You might've given up, but where's Rhythm Yellow?"

Toshiro struggled to break free of the monster's grip, but when he realized that she wasn't letting him go easily, he had no choice but to answer the question. He tried to think of a decent lie, but nothing was good enough! So he just blurted out the first thing that popped into his head.

"S-she… died of fright! Yes, that's it! Once she realized that she'd be all alone, she just dropped dead on the spot! We're telling the truth! Honest!"

Toshiro managed to glance up enough to the see Yuuki grabbing of the bombs from each of the tower's legs. He then glanced by down to see Hanabang glaring at him. He met her cruel facial expression with a fake dopey smile. She dropped him back onto the floor, yet she couldn't shake the feeling that there was some kind of trick afoot. Megatalico's hubris was clearly getting to his head, and he was clearly believing himself to be the supreme victor in this situation.

"I'm skeptical. But I can believe that someone as miserably dull as her would be frightened to death.:

"I can't believe it," Megatalico mused to himself. "Three Beatrangers already dead and two who are now my slaves?! It's too good to be true! I must be dreaming."

"Then you're in for a rude awakening, Megatalico!"

Megatalico and Hanabang looked up to see Yuuki leap from the room while holding both bombs under her arms. She flipped in midair, dual kicked Megatalico and Hanabang on her way down, then tucked and rolled away. The bombs were still blinking, and it wouldn't be long before they exploded. However, Yuuki was feeling a tad prideful at that moment, and believed some gloating was in order.

"You were right to keep an eye out for me, Hana- **bitch** ," she mocked. "Because now you're dealing with somebody who's finally realizing just what she's capable of. I am _**done**_ with being scared and pushed around. I am _**done**_ with putting myself down, and thinking that's okay. I may not understand everything that's going on in my life right now, but I know that I was chosen because I'm the best damn DJ this side of the planet. And as long as I'm wearing this suit… I'm going to kick as much butt as possible!"

Taeko, who _really_ didn't want to interrupt that speech, politely tapped Yuuki on the shoulder after its conclusion. She turned to face him.

"Yuuki, honestly, **badass** speech. It was great, but, um... the _**bombs!?**_ "

Yuuki looked at both explosives in her hands and stand to jump around as if her feet were on fire! She juggled both bombs in the air as their vermillion flashing was going a mile a minute. With no time to think about what to do, Yuuki simply smashed the crystal casings of the bombs on the ground. The casings shattered like glass, which resulted in the sparks of Kioko and Noboru flying into the sky before teleporting away. They reappeared inside the Tree of Melodies, then flew into their respective bodies. Both Beatrangers instantly jolted back to life with deep breaths.

"Holy crap! What are we doing here?" asked Noboru. Euterpe handed both him and Kioko cups of water to drink. The two Beatrangers took slow sips from the cups, and found that not only did the water quench their thirst, but it also alleviated any hunger that they were feeling. "Thanks for the water, but how'd we get back here? Last thing I remember is Kioko and Taeko arguing, then getting blown up, and then… nothing."

"Same," said Kioko.

"You were both incapacitated by having a part of your souls taken out by the Akudoma's monster. They used them to make bombs to destroy Tokyo Tower, but Yuuki came up with a brilliant strategy that-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Kioko cried out. " _Yuuki_ was the one that saved is? The same Yuuki who was too terrified to fight? That Yuuki?"

"Too be fair, Kioko, you are dealing with hellspawn here. The average person would be extremely frightened to the point of paralysis by that. But, yes, it was that very same Yuuki that saved you. You have to remember that in this battle, each of you five will have your own trials and tribulations that you will face. One of Yuuki's trials was overcoming herself. And now that she's done that, the entire team will be able to benefit from it. Now go! Your team is in desperate need of its 'Rocking Leader' and 'Upbeat Idol'."

The two of them nodded, pulled out their Rhythm Changers, and teleported to Tokyo Tower. They appeared right next to their friends. All three of the other Beatrangers were overjoyed to have their comrades back, which meant the entire team stood united as the Akudoma's force gathered their forces back together. The four unmorphed Beatrangers pulled out their Beat Records as they prepared to transform. They inserted their Records, went through the usual motions, raised the Changers to the sky, and…

 _ **BEATRANGER, ROCK ON!**_

All five heroes stood together fully transformed and ready for action. Noboru stepped forward as the pressed the button his Rhythm Changer to summon his Riff Slasher. He pointed the guitar sword at the Akudoma as he ran his fingers along the blade.

"Akudoma! You've tried to rip out the very souls of this team to destroy us. But all you've ended up doing is making us stronger than ever before! You guys are bad at your job, you know? Now it's time to show you what the power of light music can do! Weapons!"

With Noboru's command, the others started to summon up their personal weapons. Yuuki was almost a little aprehensive at first, due to her failing to summon it the first time, but she wasn't going to let that, or anything else, kill her vibe anymore. Dazzling arrays of colorful energy appeared and took form each member's hands.

 _ **Rock on, Blues Gunners!**_

 _ **Rock on, Idol Slicer!**_

 _ **Rock on, Metal Punisher!**_

 _ **Rock on, Amp Smasher!**_

While Toshiro and Kioko had at least _some_ experience with using their weapons, Taeko and Yuuki were greeted by completely foreigns entities. Taeko's weapon was a large halberd fused with a bass guitar. The blade was huge and shiny metallic black, and where the typically diamond-shaped point of a normal halberd would go, was instead replaced by pentagram outlined in silver. Yuuki's weapon was clearly the largest out of all the weapons as it was much taller than its wielder. It was basically a giant hammer with two large speakers making up its head. The long body of the weapon was covered in an alternating yellow and black pattern, and the speakers on top were also bright yellow. You would've expected it to be extremely heavy, but Yuuki found it as light as a feather; She twirled it above her head with ease as if she was spinning a baton.

"Live and on stage!" Noboru declared.

"Rocking Leader, Rhythm Red!"

"Heartbroken Soul, Rhythm Blue!"

"Explosive DJ, Rhythm Yellow!"

"Darkened Heart, Rhythm Black!"

"Upbeat Idol, Rhythm Pink!"

The team proclaimed in unison:

"The music in our hearts is the Song of Justice!"

They each took a different pose reflective of their musical style, and Noboru was front and center with Toshiro and Kioko to his right and Yuuki and Taeko to his left.

"Rhythm Sentai… **Beatranger!** "

A huge plume of multicolored smoke suddenly appeared behind the Beatrangers. It combusted into a fiery explosion as the star note symbol manifested above their heads. Crescendo and Euterpe were watching on in anticipation as the Akudoma charge forward. Each Beatranger split off to fight on their own, and this gave the perfect time to showcase the power of their weapons. Kioko was certainly allowing the Idol Slicer to live up to its namesake. She swung the bladed part of the weapon around like a toy, which meant bad news for the swarms of metronomes grouped around her; they were all either slashed back or cut up into small pieces by the kusarigama's razor sharp edge. Kioko rolled over the back of one Metro-Gnome to kick another, then wrapped the chain around the other's arm, and used its body like a wrecking ball to knock down its allies. Toshiro was running and gunning all across the battlefield. He try to play it smart by using his weapons from a distance, so he was capable of mowing down as many Metro-Gnomes as possible. Unfortunately, Yankov caught onto this strategy and engaged him in close quarter combat. Toshiro was relentlessly slashed by bulky general's claw gauntlet, and was launched a couple feet into the air by a powerful upward slash attack. When he landed on the ground again, he was still rolling across the ground. He tried shooting at Yankov from a distance, but the energy bullets just bounced off the bulky monster's dense skin. Thankfully, Taeko came to his teammate's aid by slashing Yankov across the back with his halberd. Yankov turned around to deal with his newest combatant, and tried to slash the black Ranger with his claws. Taeko used the blade of his Metal Punisher to keep the attack from hitting him, but it was obvious that Yankov had the superior strength in the situation. Toshiro managed to get himself back up, and once he saw Taeko being attacked, he ran right back into the fight. He leapt up then extended his leg out to kick Yankov away. His boot glowed with azure energy as it collided with Yankov's body, which proved effective at knocking the Akudoma general away. Meanwhile, Yuuki and Noboru were fighting side by side against Hanabang and Megatalico, respectively. Megatalico slammed his blade downward onto Noboru's, causing sparks to fly, and the blue flames on Megatalico's body to swell with unbridled rage. Rhythm Red mustered up enough strength to push his foe backwards, then parried with his blade. The attack struck Megatalico in the chest, and the general reeled backwards. However, he wasn't done just yet. Megatalico opened up his skeletal maw, spewed fire onto his sword's blade, then aimed the sword at Noboru.

"Hell Metal Flame!"

The flames from the blade immediately shot out as a singular large blast that burned at Noboru's chest. His suit protected him from actually being roasted alive, but the heat was still intense and a multitude of sparks were exploding off of the rockstar's body. Yuuki could see Noboru struggling in his fight, but she had her own issues to worry about at the moment. She and Hanabang were engaged in a fierce one-on-one battle. Hanabang was using whips made of plasma to strike at Yuuki, who was using her newfound war hammer to defend herself. Hanabang finally got a few hits in om the yellow warrior, which caused sparks to pour out as Yuuki fell backwards and rolled across the ground. Hanabang slowly crept towards Yuuki, taunting her all the while.

"You thought just because you ignited your spark and got some new hammer that you could still defeat me? I'm the best! I'm the brightest star of Hell! I'm-" Hanabang was promptly shut up when the business end of the Amp Smasher slammed right into her face. Yuuki stood up triumphantly, and cracked a smile underneath her helmet. Hitting that pain in her ass was satisfying as hell.

"You're annoying is what you are! Maybe learn to shut up once in a while and you'll avoid getting hit by hammers!"

Yuuki ran over to Noboru to help him up off the ground. Elsewhere, Kioko had added herself into the fight against Yankov. She used her chain to hold back his hulking arms, so Toshiro and Taeko could run in and do damage. Taeko mercilessly dealt blow after blow with the Metal Punisher, and that damage was only exacerbated by the accompany gunfire from Toshiro's Blues Gunners. Charging up their weapons to their full potential, both Beatrangers released their attacks in tandem.

"Heavy Blues Crash!"

Kioko flipped out of the way as curved purple energy wave followed by three cerulean shots collided with Yankov's body. The result was a sizeable explosion that left the multicolored brute blown back a couple yards. All of the Metro-Gnomes had been thoroughly beaten, and Megatalico, Hanabang, and Yankov were left to fight for themselves. Megatalico was prideful, but not foolish. His forces were scarce, and the Beatrangers had proven themselves to be formidable combatants. Even though he thoroughly **loathed** the idea, it was best to… retreat. _**Ugh!**_ The very word made him sick to his stomach.

"We need to retreat," he commanded reluctantly. "Hanabang, destroy them with everything you have!". Hanabang nodded affirmatively. Megatalico used his sword to tear open a dimensional rift, which he and the injured Yankov used to get away. Hanabang was left alone to do battle with all five Beatrangers, but the overwhelming odds against her didn't interfere with the Onigaku's immense ego.

"I don't care how much you believe in your precious music! I am the most dazzling being in existence! I'm the instrument through which the Song of Darkness will manifest!"

"That's the thing about bullies like you: you never know when to quit," Yuuki told her. "All five of us believe in the power of our music! It's a power that good should respect and evil needs to fear. We're always going to outshine you!"

The entire team began to light up with rainbow energy. They could hear the faint sound of an angelic choir singing in their ears. The light beaming from them was bright enough to blind Hanabang, who was frantically trying to shield her eyes from the light.

"What is this?" asked Kioko.

"I don't know," answered Taeko. "But I like it!"

"We're tapping into part of the Song of Light. At least, I think we are," said Noboru.

Toshiro brought up an important point, "Does this mean we can create something? Like when Crescendo made me that hat?"

"Maybe, but making a hat isn't going to stop that monster! Wait a minute… Noboru! Your idea! The cannon!" cried Yuuki. "We can use this power to bring it to life!"

Noboru was practically jumping for joy at the idea of his fantasy weapon becoming real While Toshiro and Taeko were slightly lost on the situation, they had no reason to argue about it. The team cleared their minds as they tried to imagine an extremely powerful weapon, which was interesting because there were some conflicting ideas.. Noboru knew it had to be an energy cannon, whereas Taeko couldn't help but envision miniguns as part of the weapon's offensive capabilities. Kioko imagined something with rapid mobility and some cool stealth functions. Toshiro just wanted something cool-looking, and Yuuki loved the idea of adding wings to the weapon's overall design. The energy surrounding the Beatrangers began to take shape… and what a shape it was. After another flash of blinding light, the Sentai's brainchild was revealed in all of its glory. It was in the general shape of a F-117 Nighthawk, but just a tad more streamlined, and colored the most brilliant shade of pearlescent white. Of course it was much smaller than an actual Nighthawk, and the "cockpit" was replaced by a singular "V" shaped window. The word " _ **BEATRANGER**_ " was written in all caps on both of the wings in alternating colors that represented each Beatranger. To Taeko's glee, there were actually miniguns underneath each of the object's wings, and Noboru's wish for a laser cannon was granted in the form of a huge silver barrel protruding from underneath the front of the small jet. The Beatrangers were stunned by the weapon's combination of both beauty and ferocity. Hanabang was not impressed, and she tried to blast plasma bolts at the newly forged creation. However, the machine appeared to be aware of the attacks thrown at it, and dodged accordingly. It flew downwards at blazing speeds by utilizing the powerful thrusters located on its wings, placed opposite to its miniguns. Speaking of said miniguns, they functioned quite well. Evident by the fact they were raining down absolute hell upon Hanabang, constantly firing barrage after barrage of rapid gunfire. Hanabang could only howl in anguish as she was unable to dodge, or move at all for that matter, against the endless assault of gunfire. After shooting rounds after endless rounds into the monster, the energy cannon portion fired off a singular blast at the ground at Hanabang's feet, which exploded on impact. Hanabang was tossed skyward, then slammed back onto the ground with a loud:

 _ **THUD!**_

The weapon then instinctively made its way to the Beatrangers, emitting high pitched, cutesy, digital beeps and boops. Somehow, it was alive and sentient, which only added to the coolness factor of its previous feats. Kioko immediately petted the machine on its… head? Beak? Front part. She received a plethora of digitized coos and cries in response.

"ZOMG! It's _**so**_ cute I could die!"

"Not only is it adorable, but it kicks ass too! It's like the perfect pet," Noboru said as he also joined in on petting their new mechanical friend. "What should we call you, little buddy?"

"How about... Rhythm Hawk?" suggested Yuuki. Her suggestion was met with a cascade of positive-sounding beeps coming from the weapon. "Rhythm Hawk it is then."

"You'll soon call it scrap after I'm done with you!" Hanabang yelled, sounding as if she was on the last vestiges of her sanity. Rhythm Hawk positioned itself in the middle of the Beatrangers, then opened up its "cockpit" to reveal five slots that were the perfect size for the Beat Records. Noboru and Taeko placed their records inside the two slots on the left side, and Toshiro and Kioko placed theirs into the ones on the right. This left Yuuki with the middle slot as her only option. Once she inserted her record, the translucent red window slammed back down, then turned a bright shade of yellow. The miniguns on the wings expanded to transform them from miniguns into smaller laser cannons.

 _ **FEEL THE BEAT! TECHNO CHARGE!**_

The Beatrangers held onto the wings corresponding to which side they were on; Yuuki was left standing at the back, where a large handle with a trigger was produced for her to grab onto. She pressed and held onto the trigger which caused the cannons to charge up with yellow energy. Hanabang was still disoriented from the previous attacks, so it was quite effortless to line up a clean shot. The cannons were now fully charge up, and Yuuki was more than happy to let Hanabang get everything she deserved.

"Rhythm Hawk, Techno Termination! **FIRE!** "

All three cannons shot out at once. Techno music could heard pulsing from the beams of energy as they merged together into a single massive burst of power. The attack when right through Hanabang's body. The Onigaku wailed in her death throes as crimson lightning crackled all throughout her body. She then fell down face-first, and exploded into a fiery cloud that had fireworks shooting out of it. The team stood victorious as they basked in that post-victory glow. Any people still around were clapping and cheering, and they all had to admit that it was a _really_ good feeling. Yuuki especially felt good. Not only about winning the battle, but just about herself and being more confident in her abilities. For her this cemented a change that had been long overdue.

* * *

"Kanpai!"

The clinking of glasses commemorated a momentous occasion as the Beatrangers sat down to celebrate their latest victory. Of course, this was after Kioko and Noboru had a chance to go home and change clothes. Luckily for Kioko, her mother was out of the country on a business trip, so she was able to avoid any questions about her missing for an entire day. Noboru had managed to convince his manager, who was an old guy with a strong sense of disbelief, that he had been in the hospital after the first Akudoma attack of that day. Sure, it was lying, but it was certainly easier to swallow than "I'm a superhero that fights music demons". Kioko was now wearing a light pink crop top with a big red heart on it and white shorts, and Noboru had on a red KISS shirt with jeans. Yuuki had dressed herself in a bright yellow flowy shirt with navy denim shorts, Toshiro was clad in a cobalt blue vest and tie with a white undershirt and a fedora, and Taeko was in a black leather trench coat, black pants, and a gray V-neck short-sleeved shirt.

"I can't believe we won today," Kioko said as she took a sip of her pink lemonade.

"I can," Noboru responded, taking a drink of his sangria. Non-alcoholic obviously, Noboru didn't drink. "We're freaking amazing! By the way, did you see how Hanabang blew up? It was like a New Year's Eve party or something!"

Toshiro sat down the Blue Hawaiian in his hand onto the table, "That was pretty spectacular. That Rhythm Hawk is damn powerful."

"Yes, it is. But that probably means the Akudoma are just going to up their game," brought up Taeko. "Things are only going to get crazier from here. Our lives will never be the same." He resumed drinking his taro flavored boba tea. Yuuki shifted awkwardly in her chair and fixed her glasses. She cleared her throat, then blurted out:

"I quit my job today!"

The others instantly stopped what they were doing and looked up. Yuuki, as if what she had just said was completely normal, just looked down at the floor while drinking her pineapple Ramune soda. Kioko sat straight up in her chair and began berating Yuuki.

"Are you crazy or something!?" Kioko asked her. "You must be crazy! Why'd you do something like that?"

"I…I just couldn't stay in a place like that anymore. I need a change," Yuuki replied. "Which is why I'm going to be a full time DJ from now on. Sure, I'll make less money than I did before, but I'm tired of giving up my happiness for a job I hate."

"Good on you, Yuuki," congratulated Noboru.

"Yeah, I'm happy for you," added Toshiro.

"Me too," Taeko said.

"If you like it, I love it!" Kioko cheered, pulling Yuuki into a tight embrace. Yuuki smiled and blushed heavily as the others joined in to create a huge group hug. For the first time in a long time, she felt actually happy. New friends, a new job, and a happier life? Looks like being Rhythm Yellow really _was_ going to have an impact on her life, and it was definitely a change for the better.

* * *

" _ **ARGH!**_ Damn it!"

Megatalico was in the midst of a bout of hellish fury. He was taking out his anger on the poor groups of Metro-Gnomes that were unfortunate enough to be in the general's path. Using his sword's pyrokinetic abilities, Megatalico reduced a group of 15 Metro-Gnomes into a pile of ashes. Then he picked up five more, tossed them into the air, and sliced them into microscopic pieces with his blade. Yankov and Ludvig were cowering in a corner, and trying their best to keep out of their ally's path. However, Katy Purry stepped off of her throne and walked right up to the raging commander. She stepped right in front of him and caught his sword in between her paws. The feline femme fatale was a lot stronger than she looked.

"If you'll stop throwing a bitch fit for five seconds, I have something to show you!"

Megatalico paused for a second before making his sword vanish in a puff of navy fire. Katty gave a sigh of relief, then reached into her bag and produced a piece of sheet music, and handed it to Megatalico. It was in the same style of paper as Ludvig's paper, but it was pink and the notes were done in crimson. Ludvig, noticing the distinct cessation of dismemberment, shuffled over towards his two colleagues.

"What do I care about a piece of frilly sheet music?" Megatalico menaced through gritted teeth. Katty just shook her head.

"You have that big skull stuck on your neck, and it couldn't be anymore hollow! That's a special piece of sheet music that Ludvig and I had created while you were running around making soul bombs!"

"What does it do? Create another Onigaku?"

Ludvig shook his fat little head, "No, no, no! This music is specially meant to channel pure dark energy into a fallen soldier and increase their power by 1000! I'm in the process of creating an instrument that can play it properly. It should be ready by the time we coordinate our next attack."

Megatalico handed the sheet music back to Katty and a wicked grin formed across his skeletal visage. The Beatrangers might have claimed victory yet again, Crescendo and his hapless heroes would soon be crushed by the might of the Song of Darkness. This next encounter was guaranteed to be a **BIG** hit!

 **THE END**

* * *

 **A/N: Well, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. I tried to be unique with the team's cannon by making a machination of the team's different desires in a weapon. Plus it's a jet (something that hasn't been done for a team cannon since Maskman) and it's sentient (which hasn't been done since Dekaranger). Most people are going to guess the song Hanabang was based on pretty easily, especially considering part of the lyrics are in her dialogue! Anyways, to my American readers, have a great Independence Day, and to my international readers... just be awesome. Catch you guys next chapter! Peace!**


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